Brain Imaging in Fetal Alcohol Exposed Delinquents

描述(由申请人提供)：产前酒精暴露与一系列行为和认知障碍有关，包括注意力缺陷和一般智力下降。有人建议，接触酒精的个人表现出更多的犯罪行为，并在刑事司法系统中被过度代表。然而，关于酒精暴露对青少年犯罪的影响的研究很少，特别是关于酒精暴露引起的脑损伤如何影响破坏性行为的病因的研究。目前的提案旨在使用功能神经成像来检查反应抑制执行功能缺陷在胎儿酒精暴露罪犯中的假设作用。具体地说，这项拟议的研究将调查酒精暴露的青少年和非酒精暴露的青少年额叶皮质下功能的完整性。 通过使用标准的去抑制(去不去)神经成像任务。这个项目将有助于 描述与犯罪和产前酒精暴露有关的神经相关性，并将调查胎儿酒精暴露对犯罪神经认知特征的区分程度。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Prenatal exposure to alcohol is associated with a wide array of behavioral and cognitive impairments, including attention deficits and decreases in general intelligence. It has been suggested that alcohol exposed individuals exhibit increased delinquent behavior and are overrepresented in criminal justice systems. However, there is little research on the effects of alcohol exposure in delinquent youth, particularly with regard to how alcohol-exposure induced brain damage might inform the etiology of disruptive behaviors. The current proposal aims to use functional neuroimaging to examine the hypothesized role of response inhibition executive functioning deficits in fetal alcohol-exposed delinquents. Specifically, the proposed study will investigate the integrity of frontal-sub cortical functioning in alcohol-exposed versus non-exposed juvenile delinquents by using a standard disinhibition (go no-go) neuroimaging task. This project will help to characterize the neural correlates associated with both delinquency and prenatal alcohol exposure, and will investigate the degree to which fetal alcohol exposure discriminates among delinquent neurocogntive profiles.