This study proposes to demonstrate abnormalities in the functional activity of the brain due to prenatal alcohol exposure. Subjects will be drawn from an ongoing study of people with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE) that has already collected data on structural MRI and neuropsychological functioning. We hypothesize that: (1) Image analysis of the pattern and extent of functional activation will reveal differences between controls and subjects with FAS and FAE. (2) The pattern of activation will be similar between subjects with FAS and those with FAE. (3) When data from the proposed study are combined with data already collected in the current neuroimaging/neuropsychology study, the data from the proposed study will add to the characterization of behavioral outcomes. Additionally, we wish to determine whether it is tasks highly correlated or those not highly correlated with IQ that show greater group differences in activation. Over the three years of this proposed study we will: 1. Collect fMRI data on five tasks (Number Processing Battery, Stroop Test, Auditory Attention, Finger Sequencing, and Working Memory) from 48 research subjects in three groups (16 with FAS, 16 with FAE, and 16 controls). Subjects will be group-matched for gender, age, ethnicity, and for similarity to group mean performance on WRAT-R Arithmetic Scores; 2. Characterize systematic differences among the three groups in pattern and magnitude of neural activation on five different tasks and characterize differences in neural activation between tasks highly correlated and those not highly correlated with IQ; and 3. Combine data from the proposed study with the current data set of structural MRI and neuropsychological data to better characterize the neural bases, both structural and functional, that underlie fetal alcohol-related variation in neuropsychological performance. If we succeed, the associations we find between brain metabolism and behavior should make possible more powerful and insightful explanations of brain dysfunction, with immediate implications for the diagnosis and clinical management of people with fetal alcohol brain damage.
