Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Alters Development of Brain Function

In a new study, researchers from The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles found that children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) showed weaker brain activation during specific cognitive tasks compared to their unaffected counterparts. The new findings suggest a possible neural mechanism for the persistent attention problems seen in individuals with FASD. FASD encompasses the broad spectrum of symptoms that are linked to in utero alcohol exposure; including cognitive impairment, deficits in intelligence and attention and central nervous system abnormalities. During the two-year study, researchers found that between two groups of children — one group unaffected by FASD and one group with FASD — there were significant differences seen in developmental brain activation even though they did not differ in task performance, when asked to perform tasks related to visuo-spatial attention. The results suggest that prenatal alcohol exposure can change how brain signaling develops during childhood and adolescence, long after the damaging effects of alcohol exposure in utero. To read more about this study, click here.