Functional MRI of Human Eyeblink Classical Conditioning in Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.
Cereb Cortex
; 27(7): 3752-3767, 2017 07 01.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28169393
ABSTRACT
Prenatal alcohol exposure has been linked to a broad range of developmental deficits, with eyeblink classical conditioning (EBC) among the most sensitive endpoints. This fMRI study compared EBC-related brain activity in 47 children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), partial FAS (PFAS), heavily exposed (HE) non-syndromal children, and healthy controls. All of the children had previously participated in two EBC studies conducted as part of our longitudinal study of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Although learning-related behavioral differences were seen in all groups during the scans, controls showed more conditioned responses (CR) than the alcohol-exposed groups. Despite lower conditioning levels relative to controls, the exposed groups exhibited extensive cerebellar activations. Specifically, children with FAS/PFAS showed increased activation of cerebellar lobule VI in session 2, while HE children showed increased activation in session 1. Continuous measures of prenatal alcohol use correlated with learning-related activations in cerebellum and frontal cortices. Only controls showed significant cerebellar activation-CR correlations in the deep nuclei and lateral lobule VI, suggesting that these key regions supporting EBC may be functionally disorganized in alcohol-exposed children. These findings are the first to characterize abnormalities in brain function associated with the behavioral conditioning deficits seen in children with prenatal alcohol exposure.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Piscadela
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Encéfalo
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Imageamento por Ressonância Magnética
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Condicionamento Clássico
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Transtornos do Espectro Alcoólico Fetal
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
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Etiology_studies
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Incidence_studies
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Observational_studies
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Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Child
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Female
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Humans
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Male
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Pregnancy
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2017
Tipo de documento:
Article