Prolonged exposure to a visual pattern may promote behavioral organizationin preterm infants

The article reports a study documenting preterm infants' responses to visua l patterns placed in their incubators in the neonatal intensive care unit ( NICU) and the effects of long-term exposure to the patterns. In the first e xperiment, 20 preterm infants were exposed to a visual pattern in two condi tions; stationary and rotating, during two successive exposure periods. Reg ardless of condition, the majority of infants looked longer at the visual d isplay during the second exposure period and experienced decreased heart ra tes and quiet, alert states. In a second experiment, visual patterns placed in 9 preterm infants' incubators on transfer to the intermediate side of t he NICU remained in the incubator until discharge. An additional 9 infants served as controls. Infants exposed to the visual patterns experienced fewe r state changes and stronger visual skills than infants in incubators witho ut visual displays. These findings, although tentative because of the relat ively small sample sizes, suggest that visual patterns may promote behavior al organization and visual skills in preterm infants.