Background Exposure to alcohol during gestation is associated with CNS alterations, cognitive deficits, and behavior problems. This study investigated microstructural aspects of putative white matter abnormalities following prenatal alcohol exposure. Methods Diffusion tensor imaging was used to assess white matter microstructure in 27 youth (age range: 8 to 18 years) with (n = 15) and without (n = 12) histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. Voxelwise analyses, corrected for multiple comparisons, compared fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) between groups, throughout the cerebrum. Results Prenatal alcohol exposure was associated with low FA in multiple cerebral areas, including the body of the corpus callosum and white matter innervating bilateral medial frontal and occipital lobes. Fewer between-group differences in MD were observed. Conclusions These data provide an account of cerebral white matter microstructural integrity in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and support extant literature showing that white matter is a target of alcohol teratogenesis. The white matter anomalies characterized in this study may relate to the neurobehavioral sequelae associated with gestational alcohol exposure, especially in areas of executive dysfunction and visual processing deficits.

The aims of this study were to evaluate the language abilities of young children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure and to determine if these abilities represent a relative strength or weakness for this population. Two matched groups of children (ages 3 to 5) completed the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Preschool version: 25 children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure (ALC) and 26 non-exposed controls (CON). Consistent with previous research, the CON group had significantly higher full scale IQ (FSIQ) scores than the ALC group. Receptive and expressive language skills of the two groups were compared. The ALC group had significantly poorer language skills than the CON group and both groups had better receptive than expressive abilities. Language performance did not significantly deviate from what would be predicted by FSIQ for either group. These results indicate that receptive and expressive language abilities are impaired in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure but not more so than general intellectual functioning. However, these deficits are likely to impact the social interactions and behavioral adjustment of children with prenatal alcohol exposure.

This study evaluated the social problem solving skills of adolescents with histories of prenatal alcohol exposure. Adolescents (28 alcohol-exposed, 15 controls) completed a standardized questionnaire of social problem solving, and caregivers completed a parent-report measure of executive functioning. Both questionnaires were mailed to families, and caregivers were asked to recruit a non-exposed control. Results suggest that alcohol-exposed adolescents have substantial impairments in their abilities to solve problems in their everyday life, even in the absence of mental retardation. Such impairments are likely to have a significant impact on social and academic functioning and reflect their need for critical services otherwise unavailable to them.