Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2022 Jun;46(6):961-978. doi: 10.1111/acer.14823. Epub 2022 Apr 27.
Individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders may exhibit a distinct pattern of dysmorphic facial features, growth restriction, and cognitive deficits, particularly in arithmetic. Magnitude comparison, a fundamental element of numerical cognition, is modulated by the numerical distance effect, with numbers closer in value more difficult to compare than those further apart, and by the automaticity of the association of numerical values with their symbolic representations (Arabic numerals).
We examined event-related potentials acquired during the Numerical Stroop numerical and physical tasks administered to 24 alcohol-exposed adolescents (eight fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), eight partial FAS (PFAS), eight heavily exposed (HE) nonsyndromal) and 23 typically developing (TD), same- age controls. The distance effect was assessed on the numerical task to examine differences in reaction time (RT) and accuracy when two numbers are close in value (e.g., 1 vs. 2) compared to when the numbers are less close (e.g., 1 vs. 6). Automaticity was assessed in the physical task by examining the degree to which RT and accuracy are reduced when the relative physical size of two numerals is incongruent with their numerical values (e.g., 1 vs. 6).
Adolescents in all four groups performed behaviorally as expected on these relatively simple magnitude comparison tasks, but accuracy was poorer and RT was slower on both tasks in the FAS and PFAS than the HE and TD groups. At the neurophysiological level, in the numerical task, a higher level of prenatal alcohol exposure was associated with smaller P2p amplitude. In the physical task, only the TD and nonsyndromal HE groups exhibited the expected smaller P300 amplitude in the incongruent than the congruent condition.
These findings suggest that magnitude comparison in alcohol-exposed individuals may be mediated by recruitment of alternative neural pathways that are likely to be inefficient when number processing becomes more challenging.
胎儿酒精谱系障碍个体可能表现出独特的面部畸形特征、生长受限和认知缺陷，特别是在算术方面。数量比较是数值认知的基本要素，受到数值距离效应的调节，即数值越接近，比较难度越大，而数值与其符号表示（阿拉伯数字）的自动关联也受到调节。
我们检查了在数字 Stroop 数字和物理任务中获得的事件相关电位，该任务被施用于 24 名酒精暴露的青少年（8 名胎儿酒精综合征（FAS）、8 名部分 FAS（PFAS）、8 名重度暴露（HE）非综合征）和 23 名典型发育（TD）、同年龄对照组。在数字任务中评估距离效应，以检查当两个数字值接近时（例如 1 与 2）与数字值相差较大时（例如 1 与 6）的反应时间（RT）和准确性差异。在物理任务中通过检查当两个数字的相对物理大小与其数值值不一致时 RT 和准确性降低的程度来评估自动性（例如 1 与 6）。
所有四个组的青少年在这些相对简单的数量比较任务中的行为表现都符合预期，但 FAS 和 PFAS 组的准确性较差，RT 较慢，HE 和 TD 组的 RT 较慢。在神经生理学水平上，在数字任务中，产前酒精暴露水平越高，P2p 振幅越小。在物理任务中，只有 TD 和非综合征 HE 组在不一致条件下表现出比一致条件下更小的 P300 振幅。
这些发现表明，酒精暴露个体的数量比较可能由替代神经通路的募集介导，当数字处理变得更具挑战性时，这些通路可能效率较低。
