The goal of this grant is to evaluate the effects of intrauterine cocaine exposure on neuromotor development and functioning over the first year of life using kinematic analysis. Kinematic analysis, in this study a sophisticated system wedding infrared, video, and computer technology, is able to objectively and precisely quantify the parameters of movement that until recently could only by described in clinical terms. We expect that neuromotor dysfunction in the cocaine exposed infants compared to non-exposed infants will be evidenced by an increase in the number of component units making up a movement, aberrant patterns of velocities and accelerations, disruption and disorganization of the path of movement, and elongation of the natural pauses between movement phases. These effects are found to be associated with brain damage. The proposed study is a longitudinal prospective study of forty infants with documented intrauterine exposure to cocaine, and no other illicit substances, and a matched group of 40 infants with no history of exposure to illicit substances. All infants in the study will have had an uneventful neonatal course and will be above the 10th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference. In the neonatal period, their movement patterns will be assessed with kinematic analysis during the inanimate visual-auditory orientation item of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS). At 7 and 15 months, infant movement patterns will be kinematically assessed during a reaching task. The infants will also be evaluated with the Movement Assessment of Infants at 7 months, and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development at 7 and 15 months.
| Tronick, E Z; Fetters, Linda; Olson, Karen L et al. (2004) Similar and functionally typical kinematic reaching parameters in 7- and 15-month-old in utero cocaine-exposed and unexposed infants. Dev Psychobiol 44:168-75 |
| Tronick, E Z; Beeghly, M (1999) Prenatal cocaine exposure, child development, and the compromising effects of cumulative risk. Clin Perinatol 26:151-71 |
| Tronick, E Z; Lester, B M (1996) The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale: a comprehensive instrument to assess substance-exposed and high-risk infants. NIDA Res Monogr 166:198-204 |
| Tronick, E Z; Frank, D A; Cabral, H et al. (1996) Late dose-response effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on newborn neurobehavioral performance. Pediatrics 98:76-83 |
