Visuospatial Ability
In comparison to normative data, multiple studies reported average
visuospatial skills in children with SDB.16-18 Reports
of average performance remained consistent across multiple tests,
including the Beery Visual Motor Integration
System,16,42 the NEPSY32Visuospatial domain,17-18 and the McCarthy Perceptual
Performance task.16,43 Few studies utilized a control
group or investigated differences in visuospatial abilities across SDB
severity levels. Biggs et al18 investigated
differences in visuospatial ability across SDB severity levels and
reported no differences. While the majority of studies on SDB and visual
perception are cross-sectional, one study investigated visuospatial
skills over time and reported no differences in abilities between
children with resolved or unresolved SDB after three
years.18
Studies that investigated associations between respiratory indices and
cognition in children with SDB reported no relationship between oxygen
desaturation or acute respiratory index and visuospatial
abilities.18 One longitudinal study indicated that
parent report of persistent sleep problems at age five years and age
nine years predicted poorer scores on visuospatial tasks at age thirteen
years.41 Therefore, it may be beneficial to include
variables of sleep duration when investigating associations between SDB
and visuospatial abilities. Understanding the impact of SDB on
visuospatial skills is limited by a focus on general visuospatial
constructs, rather than more detailed components of visual
discrimination, form constancy, visual figure-ground, and visual
closure. Additional limitations include small sample
sizes,36 discrepant criteria for defining SDB and SDB
severity levels, and inconsistency in measures of visual perceptual
abilities across all studies.