Smith sheds light on visuospatial defects

Yesterday, students and researchers gained a new perspective on visual attention in children.

At the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, Sabrina Smith, Neurology and Pediatrics professor at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, delivered a talk that addressed her recent research on visuospatial defects in children who have experienced neonatal and pediatric stroke. In her presentation, Smith discussed how hemispheric brain damage often impairs visual functioning during human development and may lead to adverse effects.

Smith said she hopes the research results will help to increase awareness of stroke victims' cognitive conditions and to encourage educators to adjust their instructional strategies. "We are beginning to see how [pediatric stroke] affects academic performance, particularly in mathematics," said Smith.

Smith described her experience working on pediatric research over the past four years. During that time, Smith and her colleagues found that in half the subjects, the children that had experienced a neonatal or pediatric stroke developed significant impairment in visuospatial task completion, such as recognizing objects on only one side of a sheet of paper or only completing an exercise on one-half of the page.

Others said they were excited about the groundbreaking nature of the findings. "As complicated as adult brains are, studying children adds a whole new degree of complexity," said Martha Farah, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. "It's kind of like the next frontier, and Dr. Smith is really a pioneer."

Danielle Gordon, one of Smith's research assistants, also has high hopes for the research.

"I want [Dr. Smith's findings] to produce a better understanding of pediatric and neonatal stroke because it is basically uncharted territory," she said.

Smith has had her work published in the Archives of Neurology and will deliver a presentation in two weeks at the Society for Research in Child Development.

Smith also works as an attending physician in the Pediatric Stroke Program at CHOP, a clinic devoted to helping children recover from stroke.

Smith said she plans to use her experience and findings to make additional contributions to the medical community.

"I would like to continue to characterize how brain injury affects cognition in children and find ways to facilitate recovery," she said.

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