Recent breakthrough in motor development and cognition

Finding ways to assist prematurely-born children overcome cognitive and neuromotor deficits

Researchers at the Children's Research Centre have produced the first physiological evidence that babies born before their optimal gestation period of 9 months show reduced motor system development. Studies undertaken by the Children's Research Centre and the Women's and Children's Hospital have proven that for every week of reduced gestation, there is a measurable reduction in brain development, and that these deficiencies in the brain's motor control systems may still evident at age 28 years. The next goal of this research is to develop early diagnostic and intervention strategies to enable preterm children to realise their full potential at school and into later life.