Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
First Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University and St. Anne's University Hospital, Brno, Czech Republic.
Transl Psychiatry. 2024 May 28;14(1):220. doi: 10.1038/s41398-024-02941-9.
Heavy maternal alcohol drinking during pregnancy has been associated with altered neurodevelopment in the child but the effects of low-dose alcohol drinking are less clear and any potential safe level of alcohol use during pregnancy is not known. We evaluated the effects of prenatal alcohol on reward-related behavior and substance use in young adulthood and the potential sex differences therein. Participants were members of the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC) prenatal birth cohort who participated in its neuroimaging follow-up in young adulthood. A total of 191 participants (28-30 years; 51% men) had complete data on prenatal exposure to alcohol, current substance use, and fMRI data from young adulthood. Maternal alcohol drinking was assessed during mid-pregnancy and pre-conception. Brain response to reward anticipation and reward feedback was measured using the Monetary Incentive Delay task and substance use in young adulthood was assessed using a self-report questionnaire. We showed that even a moderate exposure to alcohol in mid-pregnancy but not pre-conception was associated with robust effects on brain response to reward feedback (six frontal, one parietal, one temporal, and one occipital cluster) and with greater cannabis use in both men and women 30 years later. Moreover, mid-pregnancy but not pre-conception exposure to alcohol was associated with greater cannabis use in young adulthood and these effects were independent of maternal education and maternal depression during pregnancy. Further, the extent of cannabis use in the late 20 s was predicted by the brain response to reward feedback in three out of the nine prenatal alcohol-related clusters and these effects were independent of current alcohol use. Sex differences in the brain response to reward outcome emerged only during the no loss vs. loss contrast. Young adult men exposed to alcohol prenatally had significantly larger brain response to no loss vs. loss in the putamen and occipital region than women exposed to prenatal alcohol. Therefore, we conclude that even moderate exposure to alcohol prenatally has long-lasting effects on brain function during reward processing and risk of cannabis use in young adulthood.
母亲在怀孕期间大量饮酒已被证实与儿童神经发育改变有关，但低剂量饮酒的影响尚不明确，也不知道怀孕期间饮酒的安全水平。我们评估了产前酒精对年轻人奖赏相关行为和物质使用的影响，以及其中潜在的性别差异。参与者是欧洲妊娠和儿童纵向研究（ELSPAC）产前出生队列的成员，他们在成年早期参加了其神经影像学随访。共有 191 名参与者（28-30 岁；51%为男性）有完整的关于产前暴露于酒精、当前物质使用和成年早期 fMRI 数据。在妊娠中期和受孕前评估了母亲饮酒情况。使用货币激励延迟任务测量了对奖赏预期和奖赏反馈的大脑反应，使用自我报告问卷评估了年轻人的物质使用情况。我们发现，即使在妊娠中期有中度的酒精暴露，而不是受孕前，也与对奖赏反馈的大脑反应有明显的影响（六个额叶、一个顶叶、一个颞叶和一个枕叶集群），并与 30 年后男性和女性大麻使用量增加有关。此外，妊娠中期而不是受孕前的酒精暴露与年轻人中大麻使用量的增加有关，这些影响独立于母亲教育和怀孕期间的母亲抑郁。此外，在 20 多岁后期的大麻使用程度可以预测九个与产前酒精相关的集群中的三个集群的奖赏反馈大脑反应，这些影响独立于当前的酒精使用。在奖赏结果的大脑反应中出现了性别差异，仅在无损失与损失对比中出现。与未暴露于产前酒精的女性相比，暴露于产前酒精的年轻男性在纹状体和枕叶区域对无损失与损失的反应明显更大。因此，我们得出结论，即使是中度的产前酒精暴露也会对成年早期的奖赏处理过程中的大脑功能产生持久影响，并增加年轻人中大麻使用的风险。
