Early Childhood Vigilance Test (ECVT) of attention in younger HIV-exposed Ugandan children predicts Tests of Variables of Attention (TOVA) at school age

Abstract

Objective: Evaluate a computerized-based attention test in early infancy in predicting neurocognitive school-age performance in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-exposed uninfected children. Method: Thirty-eight Ugandan HIV-exposed/uninfected children (17 boys, 21 girls) were evaluated with the Early Childhood Vigilance Test (ECVT) of attention between 3 and 5 years of age, which is a 6-min 44 s animation with colorful animals that greet the child and move across the screen. Attention was proportion of total animation time viewing a computer screen, as well as the proportion of time tracking the moving animal using eye tracking. These children were then again tested at least 2 years later (between 5 and 9 years of age) with the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd Edition (KABC-II) and the visual computerized Tests of Variables of Attention (TOVA). Results: Irrespective of whether scored by webcam video scoring or using automated eye tracking to compute proportion of time viewing the animation, ECVT attention was significantly correlated with all TOVA outcomes for vigilance attention. This was still the case when the correlation was adjusted for type of caregiver training for the mother, child gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and quality of Home Observational Measurement Evaluation (HOME) environment-especially for the TOVA response time variability to signal (p = .03). None of the ECVT attention performance measures correlated significantly with any of the KABC-II cognitive ability outcomes. Conclusion: Attention assessment in early childhood is predictive of school-age computer-based measures of attention and can be used to gauge the effects of factors of early risk and resilience in brain/behavior development in African children affected by HIV. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Figure 1.

These photographs show the screen viewing and seating arrangement for children in the present study viewing the Early Childhood Vigilance Test (ECVT) (Figure 1a), a six minute and 44 second cartoon animation test in which colorful and active animals would appear and would intermittently great the child (see pink bunny below; Figure 1b) to gain the child’s attention to the screen. The web cam is mounted at the top of the screen and the Tobii X2–300 infrared camera strip to record pupillary gaze for eye tracking is situated in a strip below the screen.

Figure 2.

This scatterplot depicts the automated ECVT Tobii eye tracking proportion of time viewing the entire cartoon (horizontal axis) and the TOVA correct response time variability (to signal) measure at school age in milliseconds (vertical axis). The dark line is the least squares fit for the scatterplot (unadjusted).

Figure 3.

This scatterplot depicts the automated ECVT Tobii eye tracking time viewing the animation screen when cartoon animals appeared in proportion to the overall cartoon length (horizontal axis); with the TOVA correct response time variability (to signal) measure at school age in milliseconds (vertical axis). The dark line is the least squares fit for the scatterplot (unadjusted).