© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2017 DOI: 10.1163/22134468-00002089 Timing & Time Perception 5 (2017) 190–209 brill.com/time Do Preterm Infants Perceive Temporal Synchrony? An Analysis with the Eye-Tracking System Joëlle Provasi 1,* , Christelle Lemoine-Lardennois 2 , Eric Orriols 3 and Françoise Morange-Majoux 4 1 Laboratoire CHArt, EPHE-PSL, 4-14 rue Ferrus, 75014 Paris, France 2 LMC, Inserm UMR 894, Université Paris Descartes, Boulogne-Billancourt, France 3 VAC, Université Paris Descartes, Boulogne-Billancourt, France 4 LPPS, Université Paris Descartes, Boulogne-Billancourt, France Received 1 November 2016; accepted 3 February 2017 Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate auditory–visual temporal asynchrony in preterm infants us- ing a habituation procedure coupled with an eye-tracking system in order to examine visual behav- ior accurately and determine specific visual areas of interest. Sixteen term infants, twelve low-risk near-term (LBW) preterm infants and eight Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW) preterm infants were tested at four months post term. Infants were habituated with an auditory–visual synchronic situ- ation: a visual ball bounced back in synchrony with an auditory sound. In the test phase, an asyn- chronized situation and a synchronized situation were presented alternately three times. The results showed that VLBW infants spent more time looking at the target before being habituated compared to LBW preterm infants and full-term infants. Specific areas of interest showed that VLBW infants spent less time on the target than LBW and full-term infants and had a more heterogeneous visual exploration. Nevertheless, VLBW infants had the same novelty reaction as the other infant groups. Moreover, the study of areas of interest re- vealed that whatever the age group, infants looked more at the area where the sound was produced during the asynchronized trial. This result suggests that infants perceive asynchrony. We suggest that VLBW preterm infants show the same ability to habituate and novelty recovery through an early learning experience due to earlier additional extra-uterine exposure. Keywords Preterm infants, temporal asynchrony, auditory–visual asynchrony * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: joelle.provasi@ephe.sorbonne.fr