The Effect of C-Section Birth on Attention Task Performance and Cortical Grey Matter Integrity

Past evidence suggests that Caesarean section (C-section) birth is a factor in reduced performance on visual attention tasks, as well as altered intrinsic functional neural networks, for both infants and adults born via C-section. The present study tested C-section and vaginally born adults on six tasks: a visual search task, the Attention Network Task, the Sustained Attention to Response Task, the Stroop Task, the Trail Making Test, and an n-back task. Adults born via C-section were less accurate on target-absent conditions in the visual search task. No other tests showed significant differences based on birth method. Additionally, whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analysis was conducted on the anatomical magnetic resonance imaging data of adults to identify potential effects of C-section birth on cortical grey-matter integrity. Findings suggest that there is an effect of C-section birth on top-down attention but were not significant for other hypotheses in the experiment and MRI analysis.

Author dc:creator

• Chevalier, Owen Michael Lane

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Stevens, Dale
• Adler, Scott

• Neurosciences

Statement dc:rights

• Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10315/39153

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:yorkspace.library.yorku.ca:10315/39153