du Plessis Lindie, Jacobson Sandra W, Molteno Christopher D, Robertson Frances C, Peterson Bradley S, Jacobson Joseph L, Meintjes Ernesta M
Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical Research Council, University of Cape Town Medical Imaging Research Unit, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa ; Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa ; Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa ; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA.
Neuroimage Clin. 2014 Dec 24;7:562-70. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2014.12.016. eCollection 2015.
Classical eyeblink conditioning (EBC), an elemental form of learning, is among the most sensitive indicators of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. The cerebellum plays a key role in maintaining timed movements with millisecond accuracy required for EBC. Functional MRI (fMRI) was used to identify cerebellar regions that mediate timing in healthy controls and the degree to which these areas are also recruited in children with prenatal alcohol exposure.
fMRI data were acquired during an auditory rhythmic/non-rhythmic finger tapping task. We present results for 17 children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or partial FAS, 17 heavily exposed (HE) nonsyndromal children and 16 non- or minimally exposed controls.
Controls showed greater cerebellar blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) activation in right crus I, vermis IV-VI, and right lobule VI during rhythmic than non-rhythmic finger tapping. The alcohol-exposed children showed smaller activation increases during rhythmic tapping in right crus I than the control children and the most severely affected children with either FAS or PFAS showed smaller increases in vermis IV-V. Higher levels of maternal alcohol intake per occasion during pregnancy were associated with reduced activation increases during rhythmic tapping in all four regions associated with rhythmic tapping in controls.
The four cerebellar areas activated by the controls more during rhythmic than non-rhythmic tapping have been implicated in the production of timed responses in several previous studies. These data provide evidence linking binge-like drinking during pregnancy to poorer function in cerebellar regions involved in timing and somatosensory processing needed for complex tasks requiring precise timing.
经典眨眼条件反射（EBC）是一种基本的学习形式，是胎儿酒精谱系障碍最敏感的指标之一。小脑在维持EBC所需的精确到毫秒的定时运动中起关键作用。功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）用于确定在健康对照中调节定时的小脑区域，以及在产前酒精暴露儿童中这些区域的募集程度。
在听觉节律性/非节律性手指敲击任务期间采集fMRI数据。我们展示了17名患有胎儿酒精综合征（FAS）或部分FAS的儿童、17名重度暴露（HE）非综合征儿童和16名未暴露或轻度暴露对照的结果。
在节律性手指敲击期间，对照组在右侧小脑脚I、蚓部IV-VI和右侧小叶VI中显示出更大的小脑血氧水平依赖（BOLD）激活。与对照儿童相比，酒精暴露儿童在右侧小脑脚I的节律性敲击期间激活增加较小，而患有FAS或PFAS的受影响最严重的儿童在蚓部IV-V中激活增加较小。孕期每次更高水平的母亲酒精摄入量与所有四个与对照组节律性敲击相关区域的节律性敲击期间激活增加减少有关。
在之前的几项研究中，对照组在节律性敲击期间比非节律性敲击期间更多激活的四个小脑区域与定时反应的产生有关。这些数据提供了证据，将孕期类似暴饮的饮酒行为与参与复杂任务所需的定时和体感处理的小脑区域功能较差联系起来。
