Prematurity and inhibition by Hélène Deforge
2008 Winner : Prematurity and inhibition
Linked to the psychology laboratory of the universities of Lorraine, Hélène Deforge is a psychologist at the neonatology unit of the regional maternity hospital of Nancy and is part of the team following infants born very prematurely.
In 2003, more than 50,000 children were born prematurely in France, that is to say 7.2% of births. However, explains Hélène Deforge, « prematurity can be the cause of light cognitive or behavioural deficiencies that affect language, visuo-spatial and visuo-motor abilities, attention and learning ».
« Some of these difficulties are currently interpreted in terms of inhibition deficits », going on to underline: « Inhibition can be defined as a series of attentional processes in charge of rejecting or keeping irrelevant information for the activity in progress from the short-term memory ». For example, inhibition deficits can emerge as « impulsive » behaviour or attention deficit.
Hélène Deforge’s post-PhD research aims to understand this mechanism better, in order to improve the psycho-education or educational support for the children concerned: speech therapy or psychomotility, training their faculties for concentration…
