Neuropsychological functioning in patients with asymptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus infection

Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection has an affinity for the central nervous system and has been implicated in a variety of neurological impairm ents. Analysis of cognitive functioning in children with asymptomatic conge nital CMV infection, however, has revealed no general intellectual deficits . The present study was designed to explore neuropsychological test perform ance in these children, compared with healthy control subjects, providing d ata from more sensitive measures of neurocognitive functioning. The sample consisted of 109 children diagnosed with asymptomatic congenital CMV infect ion and 173 control subjects who were compared on tests measuring various a spects of perceptual and motor functioning, memory, problem solving, and tr aditional intelligence measures. Young (41NDASH6 yr) control patients perfo rmed significantly better on the Full-Scale but not the Verbal or Performan ce intelligence quotient (IQ) measures than patients with asymptomatic cong enital CMV infection, without accompanying consistent neuropsychological pe rformance differences. However, no IQ or neuropsychological differences wer e found between groups of older children. The present study adds to the exi sting literature finding no reliable, lasting differences in IQ scores and adds to our knowledge by finding no reliable, lasting differences in neurop sychological test performance.