Altered Resting‐State Neural Oscillations and Spectral Power in Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Background Consumption of alcohol during pregnancy impacts fetal development and may lead to a variety of physical, cognitive, and behavioral abnormalities in childhood collectively known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). The FASD spectrum includes children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), partial fetal alcohol syndrome (pFAS), and alcohol‐related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND). Children with a FASD or prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) have impaired white matter, reduced structural volumes, impaired resting‐state functional connectivity when measured with fMRI, and spectral hypersynchrony as infants. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) provides high temporal resolution and good spatial precision for examining spectral power and connectivity patterns unique from fMRI. The impact of PAE on MEG resting‐state spectral power in children remains unknown. Methods We collected 2 minutes of eyes‐open and eyes‐closed resting‐state data in 51 children (8 to 12 years of age) with 3 subgroups included: 10 ARND/PAE, 15 FAS/pFAS, and 26 controls (TDC). MEG data were collected on the Elekta Neuromag system. The following spectral metrics were compared between subgroups: power, normalized power, half power, 95% power, and Shannon spectral entropy (SSE). MEG spectral data were correlated with behavioral measures. Results Our results indicate children with FAS/pFAS had reduced spectral power and normalized power, particularly within the alpha frequency band in sensor parietal and source superior parietal and lateral occipital regions, along with elevated half power, 95% power, and SSE. We also found select hemisphere specific effects further indicating reduced corpus callosum connectivity in children with a FASD. Interestingly, while the ARND/PAE subgroup had significant differences from the FAS/pFAS subgroup, in many cases spectral data were not significantly different from TDC. Conclusions Our results were consistent with previous studies and provide new insight into resting‐state oscillatory differences both between children with FAS and TDC, and within FASD subgroups. Further understanding of these resting‐state variations and their impact on cognitive function may help provide early targets for intervention and enhance outcomes for individuals with a FASD.

Examining the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on corticothalamic connectivity: A multimodal neuroimaging study in children

“…The sample overlaps with the prior study ( Candelaria-Cook et al, 2020 ) which reported group differences in alpha power in children with FASD compared to TDC. Here we use the global and regional source spectral analysis reported in our prior work and add the analysis of specific DTI tracts to examine how MEG spectral power relates to white matter tract integrity assessed with DTI.…”

“…In our recently published results ( Candelaria-Cook et al, 2020 ), we identified a difference in alpha power in children with FAS relative to typically developing children (TDC). To assess the role of corticothalamic connectivity in generating alpha oscillations in children with an FASD relative to TDC, we extended the prior results ( Candelaria-Cook et al, 2020 ) using an overlapping sample to employ a multimodal approach using MEG to measure alpha normalized power at the sensor and source level and DTI to measure white matter integrity. Examining correlations at the sensor and source level allows us to determine the generalizability of the findings to the minimally processed sensor level data and is thus relevant to EEG studies that do not perform source analysis.…”

“…Children were designated as alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND), partial fetal alcohol syndrome (PFAS) or fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Additional details are provided in Candelaria-Cook et al (2020) .…”

“…MEG analysis was performed as described in Candelaria-Cook et al (2020) . Briefly, resting data were initially processed through the Neuromag Maxfilter software to remove noise and correct for head movement during the scan.…”

“…These studies support the role of thalamocortical connectivity in the generation of alpha. Our recent studies provide evidence for impaired attention (Pinner et al, in preparation) in children with an FASD and reduced alpha power ( Candelaria-Cook et al, 2020 ) in children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) relative to typically developing controls. The Candelaria-Cook et al (2020) study postulated the reduction in alpha power was attributed to reduced connectivity between posterior brain regions and the thalamus, although the connectivity between thalamus and cortex was not directly assessed.…”