NEONATAL EXPOSURE TO ALCOHOL AND/OR COCAINE & COGNITION

人们对母亲使用药物的影响相当担忧， 包括酒精和可卡因，对发育中的孩子。研究表明， 试图区分这些药物对发育的影响， 然而，已经发现滥用多种药物的趋势有所增加。 这些研究表明，接触多种药物的婴儿似乎处于 结果受损的风险更大。临床和动物研究 表明发育药物暴露于酒精和可卡因可以 导致许多生理和行为上的改变 后代。尤其值得关注的是药物的认知发展。 暴露在病毒中的儿童。使用动物模型，在这篇文章中描述的研究 提案将开始评估以下各项的长期后果 发育药物暴露对认知功能的影响。药物暴露 将重点放在大鼠的新生期。新生儿期 以神经元分化和突触发生为特征 因此，可能对行为致畸特别敏感 酒精和/或可卡因的影响。认知功能将是 使用时间歧视程序进行评估，这是一种易于建模的 动物的认知任务。这一过程侧重于时间知觉； 动物辨别事件持续时间的能力。 研究表明，大脑中涉及学习和记忆的区域可能 容易受到新生儿接触酒精和/或可卡因的侮辱。 初步研究表明，虽然学习没有受到干扰，但新生儿 接触酒精和/或可卡因会导致表现改变 在感知和短期记忆任务中。拟议中的实验 将进一步评估学习、对时间的感知和短期记忆 性能。此外，行为策略和反应模式 将被评估以确定知觉和认知的改变 短期记忆表现源于反应抑制或缺陷， 与时间编码相关的多动或缺陷。

There is considerable concern about the effects of maternal drug use, including alcohol and cocaine, on the developing child. Research has attempted to differentiate the effects of these drugs on development, however, an increased trend toward polydrug abuse has been identified. These studies indicate that polydrug exposed infants appear to be at a greater risk for compromised outcome. Both clinical and animal studies indicate that developmental drug exposure to alcohol and cocaine can result in a number of physiological and behavioral alterations in offspring. Of particular concern is the cognitive development of drug exposed children. Using an animal model, studies described in this proposal will begin to assess the long-term consequences of developmental drug exposure on cognitive functioning. Drug exposure will be focused on the neonatal period in the rat. The neonatal period is characterized by neuronal differentiation and synaptogenesis and thus, may be particularly sensitive to the behavioral teratogenic effects of alcohol and/or cocaine. Cognitive functioning will be assessed using the temporal discrimination procedure, an easily modeled cognitive task in animals. This procedure focuses on time perception; the ability of an animal to discriminate the duration of an event. Studies indicate that brain regions involved in learning and memory may be vulnerable to insults by neonatal exposure to alcohol and/or cocaine. Pilot studies indicate that while learning is not disrupted, neonatal exposure to alcohol and/or cocaine produces alterations in performance in perception and short-term memory tasks. The proposed experiments will further assess learning, perception of time and short-term memory performance. In addition the behavioral strategy and response patterns will be assessed to determine whether alterations in perception and short-term memory performance stem from response inhibition or deficits, hyperactivity or deficits related to temporal coding.