Visual Function and Neuropsychological Profile in Children with Cerebral Visual Impairment

Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) has become the leading cause of children’s visual impairment in developed countries. Since CVI may negatively affect neuropsychomotor development, an early diagnosis and characterization become fundamental to define effective habilitation approaches. To date, there i...

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Autores principales: Morelli, Federica, Aprile, Giorgia, Martolini, Chiara, Ballante, Elena, Olivier, Lucrezia, Ercolino, Elisa, Perotto, Eleonora, Signorini, Sabrina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9221908/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35740858
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9060921
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author Morelli, Federica
Aprile, Giorgia
Martolini, Chiara
Ballante, Elena
Olivier, Lucrezia
Ercolino, Elisa
Perotto, Eleonora
Signorini, Sabrina
author_facet Morelli, Federica
Aprile, Giorgia
Martolini, Chiara
Ballante, Elena
Olivier, Lucrezia
Ercolino, Elisa
Perotto, Eleonora
Signorini, Sabrina
author_sort Morelli, Federica
collection PubMed
description Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) has become the leading cause of children’s visual impairment in developed countries. Since CVI may negatively affect neuropsychomotor development, an early diagnosis and characterization become fundamental to define effective habilitation approaches. To date, there is a lack of standardized diagnostic methods to assess CVI in children, and the role of visual functions in children’s neuropsychological profiles has been poorly investigated. In the present paper, we aim to describe the clinical and neuropsychological profiles and to investigate the possible effects of visual functions on neuropsychological performance of a cohort of children diagnosed with CVI. Fifty-one children with CVI were included in our retrospective analysis (inclusion criteria: verbal IQ > 70 in Wechsler scales; absence of significant ocular involvement). For each participant, we collected data on neuropsychological assessment (i.e., cognitive, cognitive visual, and learning abilities), basic visual functions (e.g., Best Corrected Visual Acuity—BCVA, contrast sensitivity, and ocular motor abilities) and global development features (e.g., neurological signs and motor development delay) based on standardized tests, according to patients’ ages. The results showed that oculomotor dysfunction involving saccades and smooth pursuit may be a core symptom of CVI and might have a significant impact on cognitive visual and other neuropsychological abilities. Furthermore, visual acuity and contrast sensitivity may influence cognitive, cognitive visual, and academic performances. Our findings suggest the importance of a comprehensive assessment of both visual and neuropsychological functions in children when CVI is suspected, which is needed to provide a more comprehensive functional profile and define the best habilitation strategy to sustain functional vision.
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spelling pubmed-92219082022-06-24 Visual Function and Neuropsychological Profile in Children with Cerebral Visual Impairment Morelli, Federica Aprile, Giorgia Martolini, Chiara Ballante, Elena Olivier, Lucrezia Ercolino, Elisa Perotto, Eleonora Signorini, Sabrina Children (Basel) Article Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) has become the leading cause of children’s visual impairment in developed countries. Since CVI may negatively affect neuropsychomotor development, an early diagnosis and characterization become fundamental to define effective habilitation approaches. To date, there is a lack of standardized diagnostic methods to assess CVI in children, and the role of visual functions in children’s neuropsychological profiles has been poorly investigated. In the present paper, we aim to describe the clinical and neuropsychological profiles and to investigate the possible effects of visual functions on neuropsychological performance of a cohort of children diagnosed with CVI. Fifty-one children with CVI were included in our retrospective analysis (inclusion criteria: verbal IQ > 70 in Wechsler scales; absence of significant ocular involvement). For each participant, we collected data on neuropsychological assessment (i.e., cognitive, cognitive visual, and learning abilities), basic visual functions (e.g., Best Corrected Visual Acuity—BCVA, contrast sensitivity, and ocular motor abilities) and global development features (e.g., neurological signs and motor development delay) based on standardized tests, according to patients’ ages. The results showed that oculomotor dysfunction involving saccades and smooth pursuit may be a core symptom of CVI and might have a significant impact on cognitive visual and other neuropsychological abilities. Furthermore, visual acuity and contrast sensitivity may influence cognitive, cognitive visual, and academic performances. Our findings suggest the importance of a comprehensive assessment of both visual and neuropsychological functions in children when CVI is suspected, which is needed to provide a more comprehensive functional profile and define the best habilitation strategy to sustain functional vision. MDPI 2022-06-19 /pmc/articles/PMC9221908/ /pubmed/35740858 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9060921 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Morelli, Federica
Aprile, Giorgia
Martolini, Chiara
Ballante, Elena
Olivier, Lucrezia
Ercolino, Elisa
Perotto, Eleonora
Signorini, Sabrina
Visual Function and Neuropsychological Profile in Children with Cerebral Visual Impairment
title Visual Function and Neuropsychological Profile in Children with Cerebral Visual Impairment
title_full Visual Function and Neuropsychological Profile in Children with Cerebral Visual Impairment
title_fullStr Visual Function and Neuropsychological Profile in Children with Cerebral Visual Impairment
title_full_unstemmed Visual Function and Neuropsychological Profile in Children with Cerebral Visual Impairment
title_short Visual Function and Neuropsychological Profile in Children with Cerebral Visual Impairment
title_sort visual function and neuropsychological profile in children with cerebral visual impairment
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9221908/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35740858
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9060921
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