A longitudinal study of the development of shifts of gaze to a peripheral stimulus in preterm infants with transient periventricular echogenicity. 
Shifts of gaze to peripheral targets were studied longitudinally, between 6 and 26 weeks corrected age, in full-term and very preterm infants with transient periventricular echogenicity (PVE).  Before 10 weeks, simple shifts of gaze were faster and more frequent in preterms with PVE<14 days than in full-terms, suggesting these preterms profited from additional early visual experience.  After 16 weeks, there were subtle differences between full- and preterm infants in the development of shifts of gaze requiring disengagement.  The differences suggest that, after disengagement had become established, its fine-tuning occurred more slowly in the preterms.  Slower fine-tuning of disengagement was not associated with duration of PVE, since it was more marked in preterms with PVE<14 days than in preterms with PVE> or =14 days.  The differences in performance between full- and preterm infants were small.  However, even small differences may affect the efficiency of visually guided behaviors.