Soon to be moms need to think twice before opting for a C-section, as a new study has revealed that the process could impact the baby's ability to focus on a particular thing.
Scott Adler of the York University said their research revealed that being born by a C-section slowed a baby's spatial attention, which played a role in their concentration ability.
In the study, 34 infants were presented with two types of object selection tasks, to measure the latency of eye movements in hundreds of milliseconds. In a 30-minute session, the infants were on their backs with the stimuli above them on a screen, while infrared light tracked their eye movements.
Adler said that these were very important findings, considering there was a steady increase in the number of Caesarean-sections.
He added that further research into this attention difference by examining whether the Caesarean was due to birthing complications or by choice, and whether it had a long term impact, will also offer insight into the reason for differences in spatial attention in children.
The study is published in the journal Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics.
