Altered functional connectivity during spatial working memory in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure

Abstract

Individuals prenatally exposed to alcohol often have impaired spatial working memory (SWM). This study examines functional connections of frontal and parietal regions that support SWM in children with and without prenatal alcohol exposure. Children ages 10 to 16 with histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure (AE group; n = 18) and controls (CON group; n = 19) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a SWM task. Whole brain task-related functional connectivity of bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) seed regions were estimated for each participant using a psychophysiological interaction approach. Children in the AE group were less accurate than children in the CON group when performing the SWM task (p = .008). Positive coupling between bilateral DLPFC seeds and regions within the fronto-parietal network was observed in the CON group, whereas the AE group showed negative connectivity. In contrast to the CON group, the AE group showed positive connectivity between PPC seeds and frontal lobe regions. Across seeds, decreased negative coupling with regions outside the fronto-parietal network (e.g., left middle occipital gyrus) were observed in the AE group relative to the CON group. Functional data clusters were considered significant at p < .05. Overall findings suggest that localized alterations in neural activity, aberrant fronto-parietal network synchrony, and poor coordination of neural responses with regions outside of this network may help explain SWM deficits in individuals with a history of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure.

Alcohol use in pregnancy and its impact on the mother and child

“…Similar associations between neural imaging/function and academic performance have been noted by other studies, including an inverse relationship between frontal cortical thickness and memory [126], an association between spatial working memory impairment and aberrant fronto‐parietal network synchrony [127] and a relationship between right occipito‐temporal cortical thickness and IQ [128] and between anterior cingulate cortical surface area and behavioural inhibition [129].…”

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: A Review of the Neurobehavioral Deficits Associated With Prenatal Alcohol Exposure

“…Impairments in spatial working memory are also evident, with deficits becoming more significant as the task increases in complexity (Green et al., ). Additionally, neural correlates of working memory impairment have been found in frontoparietal regions among individuals with prenatal alcohol exposure (Infante et al., ).…”

Functional Connectome of the Fetal Brain

“…The trajectory of functional dynamics of brain development follows multiple stages, all influencing future connectome health. Prenatal processes such as maternal viral infections, extensive stress, food-intake, alcohol and medication use, among others, all have strong influence on later life functional connectivity (FC) of children (Grewen et al, 2015;Salzwedel et al, 2015Salzwedel et al, , 2016Li et al, 2016;Infante et al, 2017;van den Bergh et al, 2017;de Water et al, 2018;Rudolph et al, 2018). With advances in fetal restingstate neuroimaging it is now possible to measure these FC patterns noninvasively in vivo (for review, see Anderson and Thomason, 2013;van den Heuvel and Thomason, 2016).…”