Purpose of Study Prenatal exposure to alcohol often results in disruption to discrete cognitive and behavioral domains, including executive function (EF) and adaptive functioning. In the current study, the relation between these two domains was examined in children with histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure, non-exposed children with a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and typically developing controls. Methods As part of a multisite study, three groups of children (8-18y, M = 12.10) were tested: children with histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure (ALC, N=142), non-exposed children with ADHD (ADHD, N=82), and typically developing controls (CON, N=133) who did not have ADHD or a history of prenatal alcohol exposure. Children completed subtests of the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) and their primary caregivers completed the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-II (VABS). Data were analyzed using regression analyses. Results Analyses showed that EF measures were predictive of adaptive abilities and significant interactions between D-KEFS measures and group were present. For the ADHD group, the relation between adaptive abilities and EF was more general, with three of the four EF measures showing a significant relation with adaptive score. In contrast, for the ALC group, this relation was specific to the nonverbal EF measures. In the CON group, performance on EF tasks did not predict adaptive scores over the influence of age. Conclusion These results support prior research in ADHD suggesting that EF deficits are predictive of poorer adaptive behavior and extend this finding to include children with heavy prenatal exposure to alcohol. However, the relation between EF and adaptive ability differed by group, suggesting unique patterns of abilities in these children. These results provide enhanced understanding of adaptive deficits in these populations, as well as demonstrate the ecological validity of laboratory measures of executive function.
To address controversy surrounding the most appropriate comparison group for mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) research, mTBI patients 12-30 years of age were compared with an extracranial orthopedic injury (OI) patient group and an uninjured, typically developing (TD) participant group with comparable demographic backgrounds. Injured participants underwent subacute (within 96 h) and late (3 months) diffusion tensor imaging (DTI); TD controls underwent DTI once. Group differences in fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) of commonly studied white matter tracts were assessed. For FA, subacute group differences occurred in the bilateral inferior frontal occipital fasciculus (IFOF) and right inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), and for MD, differences were found in the total corpus callosum, right uncinate fasciculus, IFOF, ILF, and bilateral cingulum bundle (CB). In these analyses, differences (lower FA and higher MD) were generally observed between the mTBI and TD groups but not between the mTBI and OI groups. After a 3 month interval, groups significantly differed in left IFOF FA and in right IFOF and CB MD; the TD group had significantly higher FA and lower MD than both injury groups, which did not differ. There was one exception to this pattern, in which the OI group demonstrated significantly lower FA in the left ILF than the TD group, although neither group differed from the mTBI group. The mTBI and OI groups had generally similar longitudinal results. Findings suggest that different conclusions about group-level DTI analyses could be drawn, depending on the selected comparison group, highlighting the need for additional research in this area. Where possible, mTBI studies may benefit from the inclusion of both OI and TD controls.
Background The present study examined prevalence of psychiatric disorders and behavioral problems in children with and without prenatal alcohol exposure (AE) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Methods Primary caregivers of 344 children (8–16y, M=12.28) completed the Computerized Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children-IV (C-DISC-4.0) and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Subjects comprised 4 groups: AE with ADHD (AE+, n=85) and without ADHD (AE−, n=52), and non-exposed with ADHD (ADHD, n=74) and without ADHD (CON, n=133). The frequency of specific psychiatric disorders, number of psychiatric disorders (comorbidity), and CBCL behavioral scores were examined using chi-square and ANCOVA techniques. Results Clinical groups had greater frequency of all psychiatric disorders, except for anxiety, where the AE− and CON groups did not differ. There was a synergistic effect of AE and ADHD on conduct disorder. For Comorbidity, children with ADHD had increased psychiatric disorders regardless of AE, which did not have an independent effect on comorbidity. For CBCL scores, there were significant main effects of AE and ADHD on all scores and significant AE X ADHD interactions for Withdrawn/Depressed, Somatic Complaints, Attention, and all Summary scores. There was a synergistic effect of AE and ADHD on Externalizing, Total Problems, and Attention Problems. Conclusion Findings indicate that ADHD diagnosis elevates children’s risk of psychiatric diagnoses, regardless of AE, but suggest a synergistic relation between AE and ADHD on conduct disorder and externalizing behavioral problems in children. Findings affirm a poorer behavioral prognosis for alcohol-exposed children with ADHD and suggest that more than one neurobehavioral profile may exist for individuals with AE.
Heavy prenatal alcohol exposure results in a range of deficits, including both volumetric and functional changes in brain regions involved in response inhibition such as the prefrontal cortex and striatum. The current study examined blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response during a stop signal task in adolescents (ages 13–16 y) with histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure (AE, n = 21) and controls (CON, n = 21). Task performance was measured using percent correct inhibits during three difficulty conditions: easy, medium, and hard. Group differences in BOLD response relative to baseline motor responding were examined across all inhibition trials and for each difficulty condition separately. The contrast between hard and easy trials was analyzed to determine whether increasing task difficulty affected BOLD response. Groups had similar task performance and demographic characteristics, except for full scale IQ scores (AE < CON). The AE group demonstrated greater BOLD response in frontal, sensorimotor, striatal, and cingulate regions relative to controls, especially as task difficulty increased. When contrasting hard vs. easy inhibition trials, the AE group showed greater medial/superior frontal and cuneus BOLD response than controls. Results were unchanged after demographics and FAS diagnosis were statistically controlled. This was the first fMRI study to utilize a stop signal task, isolating fronto-striatal functioning, to assess response inhibition and the effects task difficulty in adolescents with prenatal alcohol exposure. Results suggest that heavy prenatal alcohol exposure disrupts neural function of this circuitry, resulting in immature cognitive processing and motor-association learning and neural compensation during response inhibition.
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