Study Examines Effects of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure
Drinking alcohol during pregnancy is known to cause serious damage to the fetus, but new research explores memory deficits in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders or fetal alcohol syndrome. This new research may be able to help in the development of new treatments for these disorders.
Joseph Jacobson, a co-author of the study and professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, said that the developmental deficits in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and fetal alcohol syndrome are not fully understood, so the researchers wanted to examine the mental deficits that some of these children experience to help better understand the underlying mechanisms.
Jacobson said that these disorders are associated with learning problems, including memory and response inhibition. Better understanding of the mechanisms behind these disorders could significantly help scientists find better ways to help children with learning problems related to prenatal alcohol exposure.
The deficits that can come with these disorders are quite varied, but what is known is that prenatal alcohol exposure affects many aspects of brain development, including brain size and the development of neurons and white matter tracts.
For the study, researchers collected data from 217 Inuit children, who were divided into two groups: Those that were exposed to alcohol while in the womb, and those who weren’t (the control group). The data was recorded using EEG to observe the brain’s electrical activity during memory and coordination tests.
The researchers found that the children who had been exposed to alcohol showed a significant decrease in attention, memory, and understanding the meaning of a stimulus, but were similar to the control group in terms of accuracy and reaction time. This shows that children affected by alcohol exposure disorders have problems with processing certain information.
Jacobson said that more research needs to be done to help children affected by these disorders, but that this study is an important first step.
Source: Science Daily, Attention Processing and Perception May Be Involved in Fetal Alcohol-Related Learning Difficulties, October 21, 2010
