Fetal Alcohol Exposure Alters BOLD Activation Patterns in Brain Regions Mediating the Interpretation of Facial Affect.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Although deficits in the interpretation of affective facial expressions have been described clinically and in behavioral studies of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the neural networks that mediate affective appraisal have not previously been examined.

Methods

We administered a nonverbal event-related fMRI affective appraisal paradigm to 64 children (mean age = 12.5 years; 18 with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or partial FAS (PFAS), 18 nonsyndromal heavily exposed (HE), and 28 controls). Happy, sad, angry, fearful, and neutral faces and pixelated control images were presented sequentially in a randomized order. The child indicated whether the currently displayed face showed the same or different affect as the previous

SUBMITTER: Lindinger NM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7970581 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature