Ostertag Curtis, Reynolds Jess E, Kar Preeti, Dewey Deborah, Gibbard W Ben, Tortorelli Christina, Lebel Catherine
Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
Front Neurosci. 2023 Jun 2;17:1174165. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1174165. eCollection 2023.
Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) contributes to widespread neurodevelopmental challenges, including reading, and has been associated with altered white matter. Here, we aimed to investigate whether arcuate fasciculus (AF) development is associated with pre-reading language skills in young children with PAE.
A total of 51 children with confirmed PAE (25 males; 5.6 ± 1.1 years) and 116 unexposed controls (57 males; 4.6 ± 1.2 years) underwent longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), for a total of 111 scans from participants with PAE and 381 scans in the unexposed control group. We delineated the left and right AF and extracted mean fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD). Pre-reading language ability was assessed using age-standardized phonological processing (PP) and speeded naming (SN) scores of the NEPSY-II. Linear mixed effects models were run to determine the relationship between diffusion metrics and age, group, sex, and age-by-group interactions, with subject modeled as a random factor. A secondary mixed effect model analysis assessed the influence of white matter microstructure and PAE on pre-reading language ability using diffusion metric-by-age-by-group interactions, with 51 age- and sex-matched unexposed controls.
Phonological processing (PP) and SN scores were significantly lower in the PAE group ( < 0.001). In the right AF, there were significant age-by-group interactions for FA ( < 0.001) and MD ( = 0.0173). In the left AF, there was a nominally significant age-by-group interaction for MD that failed to survive correction ( = 0.0418). For the pre-reading analysis, a significant diffusion-by-age-by-group interaction was found for left FA ( = 0.0029) in predicting SN scores, and for the right FA ( = 0.00691) in predicting PP scores.
Children with PAE showed altered developmental trajectories for the AF, compared with unexposed controls. Children with PAE, regardless of age, showed altered brain-language relationships that resembled those seen in younger typically developing children. Our findings support the contention that altered developmental trajectories in the AF may be associated with functional outcomes in young children with PAE.
产前酒精暴露（PAE）会导致广泛的神经发育挑战，包括阅读方面的问题，并且与白质改变有关。在此，我们旨在研究弓形束（AF）发育是否与PAE幼儿的阅读前语言技能相关。
共有51名确诊为PAE的儿童（25名男性；5.6±1.1岁）和116名未暴露的对照组儿童（57名男性；4.6±1.2岁）接受了纵向扩散张量成像（DTI），PAE组参与者共进行了111次扫描，未暴露对照组进行了381次扫描。我们勾勒出左右AF，并提取平均分数各向异性（FA）和平均扩散率（MD）。使用NEPSY-II的年龄标准化语音处理（PP）和快速命名（SN）分数评估阅读前语言能力。运行线性混合效应模型以确定扩散指标与年龄、组、性别以及年龄与组的交互作用之间的关系，将个体作为随机因素建模。二次混合效应模型分析使用扩散指标×年龄×组的交互作用评估白质微观结构和PAE对阅读前语言能力的影响，对照组为51名年龄和性别匹配的未暴露儿童。
PAE组的语音处理（PP）和SN分数显著更低（<0.001）。在右侧AF中，FA（<0.001）和MD（=0.0173）存在显著的年龄×组交互作用。在左侧AF中，MD存在名义上显著的年龄×组交互作用，但校正后未通过检验（=0.0418）。对于阅读前分析，在预测SN分数时，左侧FA（=0.0029）以及在预测PP分数时右侧FA（=0.00691）存在显著的扩散×年龄×组交互作用。
与未暴露的对照组相比，PAE儿童的AF发育轨迹发生了改变。PAE儿童，无论年龄大小，都表现出大脑与语言关系的改变，类似于典型发育的年幼儿童。我们的研究结果支持这样的观点，即AF发育轨迹的改变可能与PAE幼儿的功能结果相关。
