Prenatal Alcohol Exposure: Cognitive and Brain Function

描述（由申请人提供）： 该K01应用程序将提供必要的技能，以研究产前暴露于酒精导致的大脑功能变化的专门培训。尽管研究已经广泛地描述了与产前酒精相关的神经心理学缺陷，但需要更好地了解其潜在机制以及认知缺陷的特异性。拟议的研究提供了一个假设驱动的方法来识别与产前酒精暴露相关的功能性脑改变。该奖项将使申请人能够建立一个研究生涯，专注于研究产前酒精暴露个体认知发展的神经基质。申请人将获得以下方面的额外培训：1）有助于认知行为及其发展的神经回路，2）神经成像研究的实验设计，实施和定量方法，以及3）与产前酒精暴露相关的生物学和认知之间的相互作用。申请人将使用探测注意力、自愿反应抑制和工作记忆的任务来检查产前酒精暴露对认知和脑功能的影响。之所以选择这些特定的任务，是因为以前的研究表明，产前接触酒精的儿童在这些行为方面存在缺陷。此外，这些基本的认知功能对于更复杂的认知行为至关重要，例如执行功能，这在产前酒精暴露的青少年中受到影响。拟议的研究将为怀孕期间接触酒精的个人的识别，干预和康复提供重要信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This K01 application will provide specialized training in the skills necessary to study changes in brain function resulting from prenatal exposure to alcohol. Although research has broadly characterized the neuropsychological deficits associated with prenatal alcohol, a greater understanding of the underlying mechanisms, as well as the specificity of cognitive deficits, is needed. The proposed research provides a hypothesis driven approach for identifying functional brain alterations associated with prenatal alcohol exposure. This award will enable the applicant to establish a research career focused on studying the neural substrates of cognitive development in individuals with prenatal alcohol exposure. The applicant will obtain additional training in: 1) the neural circuitry subserving cognitive behavior and its development, 2) experimental design, implementation, and quantitative methods of neuroimaging studies, and 3) the interactions between biology and cognition that are related to prenatal alcohol exposure. The applicant will examine the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on cognitive and brain function using tasks that probe attention, voluntary response suppression, and working memory. These specific tasks were chosen because previous studies have demonstrated deficits in these behaviors in children prenatally exposed to alcohol. In addition, these basic cognitive functions are crucial for more complex cognitive behaviors such as executive functions, which are affected in adolescents with prenatal alcohol exposure. The proposed research will provide crucial information for the identification, intervention, and rehabilitation of individuals exposed to alcohol during pregnancy.