Deficits in visual recognition in low birth weight infant pigtailed monkeys (Macaca nemestrina)

15 low birth weight and 15 normal birth weight pigtailed monkey infants were administered an adaptation of a standardized test of visual recognition memory, originally developed for human infants. Animals were given a series of problems in which 2 identical black-and-white patterns were presented for a familiarization period. The previously exposed pattern was then paired with a novel one, and looking time to each pattern was recorded. The normal birth weight animals directed a significant amount of their visual attention to the novel stimuli, thus demonstrating recognition abilities. As a group, the performance of the low birth weight infants remained at chance. These findings have important implications for an animal model to examine factors contributing to poor cognitive outcome in low birth weight human infants.