Mobile Paradigm

This project uses a mobile paradigm, which is a cognitive task to evaluate learning and memory in full-term infants with complex congenital heart defects. We compare their performances with preterm infants and full-term infants with typical development. We are able to simultaneously measure infants’ autonomic regulation during the mobile paradigm task by heart rate variability. In the mobile paradigm, an infant’s leg is tethered to an overhead mobile and subsequent leg kicks cause the mobile to move providing reinforcement to the infant. Thus, we also measures how infants’ spontaneous kicking performances influences their behaviors in the mobile paradigm task.