Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) encompasses a broad range of disabilities involving both structural and functional changes. Among the most devastating effects are those caused by alterations in the central nervous system (CMS). These CMS changes result in the cognitive and behavioral deficits reported in most studies of FAS. In addition, it is recognized that brain and behavioral changes can occur in the absence of the facial features required for an FAS diagnosis. In our studies, children with heavy prenatal exposure to alcohol (PEA), who do not have the obvious physical features of FAS, show changes in both brain and behavior similar to those seen in FAS. The term fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) is now being used to describe the range of effects resulting from prenatal alcohol exposure and to reflect that these effects can occur in both dysmorphic and nondysmorphic individuals. Our structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have indicated that white matter in the brain may be particularly sensitive to the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure. At the same time we have noticed a similarity between the behavioral effects of prenatal alcohol exposure and those resulting from white matter damage. The proposed project is multidisciplinary in nature, including neuropsychological assessment and brain imaging studies. We plan to continue our structural MRI studies, and in addition, we are proposing two new imaging techniques: diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to assess white matter damage and functional MRI (fMRI) to assess changes in brain function while performing a task known to be sensitive to prenatal alcohol exposure. This proposal represents a continuation of work that we have been conducting over the last 10 years. Our behavioral assessments will stress tasks hypothesized to be sensitive to white matter changes and our imaging studies will complement these behavioral investigations and allow us to correlate changes in brain with our behavioral findings. Furthermore, we will conduct these investigations in both dysmorphic and nondysmorphic individuals with FASD. We believe that our approach has been successful thus far, and that this multidisciplinary project will expand our understanding of the devastating effects of prenatal alcohol exposure, hopefully informing us sufficiently that we might begin to propose reasonable intervention strategies

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AA010417-14
Application #
7644534
Study Section
Neurotoxicology and Alcohol Study Section (NAL)
Program Officer
Matochik, John A
Project Start
1995-01-01
Project End
2013-03-31
Budget Start
2009-07-01
Budget End
2013-03-31
Support Year
14
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$463,611
Indirect Cost
Name
San Diego State University
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
073371346
City
San Diego
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
92182
Infante, M Alejandra; Moore, Eileen M; Nguyen, Tanya T et al. (2015) Objective assessment of ADHD core symptoms in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. Physiol Behav 148:45-50
Crocker, Nicole; Riley, Edward P; Mattson, Sarah N (2015) Visual-spatial abilities relate to mathematics achievement in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. Neuropsychology 29:108-16
Cardenas, Valerie A; Price, Mathew; Infante, M Alejandra et al. (2014) Automated cerebellar segmentation: Validation and application to detect smaller volumes in children prenatally exposed to alcohol. Neuroimage Clin 4:295-301
O'Brien, Jessica W; Norman, Andria L; Fryer, Susanna L et al. (2013) Effect of predictive cuing on response inhibition in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 37:644-54
Norman, Andria L; O'Brien, Jessica W; Spadoni, Andrea D et al. (2013) A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of spatial working memory in children with prenatal alcohol exposure: contribution of familial history of alcohol use disorders. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 37:132-40
Bower, Emily; Szajer, Jacquelyn; Mattson, Sarah N et al. (2013) Impaired odor identification in children with histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. Alcohol 47:275-8
Fryer, Susanna L; Mattson, Sarah N; Jernigan, Terry L et al. (2012) Caudate volume predicts neurocognitive performance in youth with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 36:1932-41
Mattson, Sarah N; Riley, Edward P (2011) The quest for a neurobehavioral profile of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. Alcohol Res Health 34:51-5
Mattson, Sarah N; Crocker, Nicole; Nguyen, Tanya T (2011) Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders: neuropsychological and behavioral features. Neuropsychol Rev 21:81-101
Riley, Edward P; Infante, M Alejandra; Warren, Kenneth R (2011) Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders: an overview. Neuropsychol Rev 21:73-80

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