The relevance of the irrelevant: Attention and task-set adaptation in prematurely born adults

OBJECTIVE To investigate attention and task-set adaptation in a preterm born very low birth weight (PT/VLBW) population by means of event-related potential components from an adapted cued go/no-go task. METHODS P3 components after target and non-target cues, as well as target, no-go and non-target imperative stimuli were compared in 30 PT/VLBW young adults and 33 term-born controls. Changes in P3 amplitudes as a function of time-on-task were also investigated. RESULTS The PT/VLBW group had larger P3 amplitudes to non-target cues and non-targets compared with controls. There were no significant group differences in the P3s to target or no-go stimuli. Moreover, the amplitude of the P3 to non-target cues and non-targets decreased significantly over time in the control group but not in the PT/VLBW group. CONCLUSIONS PT/VLBW young adults allocate more attention to behaviorally irrelevant information than term-born controls, and persist in attending to this information over time. SIGNIFICANCE This is the first study to investigate ERP components in an adult population born preterm with very low birth weight.