FAS: NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF CHILDREN

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中的一个 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源。子项目和 研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金， 因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为 研究中心，而研究中心不一定是研究者所在的机构。 产前酒精暴露会引起广泛的身体和行为影响。其中最严重的是这种暴露对发育中的中枢神经系统的影响，从而影响后代的认知能力。这些缺陷通常会影响注意力，学习和记忆领域。一般来说，大多数对FAS儿童或产前暴露于酒精的儿童的评估都依赖于传统的、相当全球化的心理测试。然而，最近的研究已经开始关注酒精致畸性的更具体的神经心理学和神经解剖学措施。例如，最近有报道称，FAS儿童的语言学习能力存在缺陷，但对所学内容的记忆能力相对较弱。此外，酒精暴露的儿童表现出特定的赤字的视觉空间处理的一个措施。然而，产前酒精暴露对认知功能的许多特定领域的影响尚不清楚。例如，虽然有证据表明，空间记忆缺陷发生在酒精暴露的儿童，很少有人知道酒精的致畸作用的视觉空间域。这项建议的目的之一是评估的视觉空间功能的历史，产前酒精暴露的儿童，使用组件过程的方法来检查这一领域的认知功能的具体方面。其次，最近对酒精暴露儿童的磁共振成像研究表明，三个大脑区域可能受到特别影响。这些区域是基底神经节、胼胝体和小脑蚓部。目前正在评估基底神经节和胼胝体异常的行为相关性，但与小脑相关的行为相关性尚未在酒精暴露儿童中进行测试。这项建议的第二个目的是评估运动和注意力功能，这是已知与小脑有关的行为。最后，酒精相关认知缺陷的特异性尚未报道。因此，目前尚不清楚这些缺陷是特定于酒精暴露还是继发于一般认知缺陷。为了实现这一目标，在本提案的两个组成部分中，将与产前酒精暴露无关的智力缺陷儿童与酒精暴露儿童进行比较。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Prenatal alcohol exposure causes a wide range of physical and behavioral effects. The most serious of these is the effect such exposure has on the developing central nervous system and thus the cognitive abilities of the offspring. These deficits often impact the areas of attention, learning, and memory. In general, most assessments of children with FAS, or those who have been prenatally exposed to alcohol, have relied on traditional, fairly global, psychological tests. Recently, however, research has begun to focus on more specific neuropsychological and neuroanatomical measures of alcohol's teratogenicity. For example, deficits in verbal learning with relative sparing in retention of learned material was recently reported in children with FAS. In addition, alcohol-exposed children displayed specific deficits on one measure of visuospatial processing. However, the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on many of the specific areas of cognitive functioning are unclear. For example, although some evidence exists that spatial memory deficits occur in alcohol-exposed children, little is known about alcohol's teratogenic effect on the visuospatial domain. One aim of this proposal is to evaluate visuospatial functioning in children with histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure, using a component-process approach to examine specific aspects of this domain of cognitive functioning. Secondly, recent studies involving magnetic resonance imaging of alcohol-exposed children indicate three brain areas that may be particularly affected. These areas are the basal ganglia, the corpus callosum, and the cerebellar vermis. Behavioral correlates of basal ganglia and corpus callosum abnormalities are currently being assessed but those associated with the cerebellum remain untested in alcohol-exposed children. A second aim of this proposal is to evaluate motor and attentional functioning, which are behaviors known to be associated with the cerebellum. Finally, the specificity of alcohol-related cognitive deficits has not yet been reported. Thus it is unclear whether these deficits are specific to alcohol exposure or are secondary to general cognitive deficits. To address this aim, in both components of this proposal, children with mental deficiency unrelated to prenatal alcohol exposure will be compared to alcohol-exposed children.