Stevens, DaleAdler, ScottChevalier, Owen Michael Lane2022-03-032022-03-032021-122022-03-03http://hdl.handle.net/10315/39153Past evidence suggests that Caesarean section (C-section) birth is a factor in reduced performance on visual attention tasks, as well as altered intrinsic functional neural networks, for both infants and adults born via C-section. The present study tested C-section and vaginally born adults on six tasks: a visual search task, the Attention Network Task, the Sustained Attention to Response Task, the Stroop Task, the Trail Making Test, and an n-back task. Adults born via C-section were less accurate on target-absent conditions in the visual search task. No other tests showed significant differences based on birth method. Additionally, whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analysis was conducted on the anatomical magnetic resonance imaging data of adults to identify potential effects of C-section birth on cortical grey-matter integrity. Findings suggest that there is an effect of C-section birth on top-down attention but were not significant for other hypotheses in the experiment and MRI analysis.Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.NeurosciencesElectronic Thesis or Dissertation2022-03-03C-sectionTop-down and bottom-up attentionVoxel-based morphometryVisual attentionVisual search