The Mind Research Network, A Division of Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute, Albuquerque, NM 87106, United States; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, United States.
The Mind Research Network, A Division of Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute, Albuquerque, NM 87106, United States.
Alcohol. 2022 Mar;99:59-69. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2021.12.001. Epub 2021 Dec 13.
Children with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) often suffer from cognitive and neurobehavioral dysfunction throughout their lives, which may rise to a level of concern such that children receive a diagnosis under the fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) umbrella. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) contributes direct insight into neural processing and functional connectivity measures with temporal precision to understand cortical processing disorders that manifest during development. The impairment of perception may become more consequential among school-aged children with an FASD in the process of intellectual functioning and behavioral maturation. Fifty participants with the age range of 8-13 years participated in our study following parental informed consent and child assent. For each participant, visual responses were recorded using magnetoencephalography (MEG) while performing a prosaccade task with central stimuli (fovea centralis) and peripheral stimuli (left and right of central) presented on a screen, requiring participants to shift their gaze to the stimuli. After source analysis using minimum norm estimation (MNE), we investigated visual responses from each participant by measuring the latency and amplitude of visual evoked fields. Delayed peak latency of the visual response was identified in the primary visual area (calcarine fissure) and visual association areas (v2, v3) in young children with an FASD for both stimulus types (central and peripheral). But the difference in visual response latency was only statistically significant (p ≤ 0.01) for the peripheral (right) stimulus. We also observed reduced amplitude (p ≤ 0.006) of visual evoked response in children with an FASD for the central stimulus type in both primary and visual association areas. Multiple visual areas show impairment in children with an FASD, with visual delay and conduction disturbance more prominent in response to peripheral stimuli. Children with an FASD also exhibit significantly reduced amplitude of neural activation to central stimuli. These sensory deficits may lead to slow cognitive processing speed through continued intra-cortical network disturbance in children with an FASD.
患有产前酒精暴露 (PAE) 的儿童在其一生中经常遭受认知和神经行为功能障碍，这可能会引起关注，以至于这些儿童在胎儿酒精谱系障碍 (FASD) 范围内被诊断出患有疾病。脑磁图 (MEG) 通过具有时间精度的直接神经处理和功能连接测量来提供见解，以了解在发育过程中表现出的皮质处理障碍。在具有 FASD 的学龄儿童的智力功能和行为成熟过程中，感知障碍可能变得更加严重。五十名年龄在 8 至 13 岁之间的参与者在父母知情同意和儿童同意的情况下参加了我们的研究。对于每个参与者，使用脑磁图 (MEG) 记录视觉反应，同时执行中央刺激 (中央凹) 和外周刺激 (中央左右) 的注视转移任务，要求参与者将目光转移到刺激上。在使用最小范数估计 (MNE) 进行源分析后，我们通过测量视觉诱发电位的潜伏期和振幅来研究每个参与者的视觉反应。对于两种刺激类型（中央和外周），患有 FASD 的幼儿的初级视觉区（枕沟裂）和视觉联合区（v2、v3）的视觉反应峰潜伏期延迟。但是，仅在外周（右侧）刺激的情况下，视觉反应潜伏期的差异具有统计学意义（p≤0.01）。我们还观察到，在 FASD 儿童中，中央刺激类型的视觉联合区和初级视觉区的视觉诱发电位振幅降低（p≤0.006）。患有 FASD 的儿童的多个视觉区域存在损伤，对外周刺激的反应中视觉延迟和传导障碍更为明显。FASD 儿童对中央刺激的神经激活幅度也明显降低。这些感觉缺陷可能导致 FASD 儿童的认知处理速度缓慢，原因是皮质内网络持续受到干扰。
