Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Hindering on Learning and Brain Structure
In this literary review, research from six peer reviewed journals will be analyzed and summarized to attain a wide-ranging look at fetal alcohol spectrum disorders effects. The majority of the journals have human subjects except for one whose testing was done on rats to indicate that the adverse effects of alcohol consumption during the gestational cycle is not limited to humans. Several areas of the brain are also studied across the journals to give a broader view. Several different kinds of brain scans were used to analyze the subjects, each with their own advantages and drawbacks. The aim of this review is to understand that an individual does not need to have all the features of fetal alcohol syndrome in order to have cognitive and neural deficiencies.
Mothers who consumed alcohol during pregnancy result in children that have a deficiency with number processing. This was studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging to study the brain of children with fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol spectrum disorder while number processing. There were 15 children in the FAS group, all of which were right handed and aged 8-12.The mothers of the FAS group all reported drinking at least 14 standard drinks a week during pregnancy with each drink containing at minimum 1.0 ounce of alcohol. The control group consisted of 18 children of mixed ancestry who were also right handed and aged 8-12. Both groups were tested using two different features of number processing. The first test was based on proximity judgement which consists of comparing numbers and determining which number was greater and a second part consisted of asking which two numbers was closest to...
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Meintjes, E. M., Jacobson, J. L., Molteno, C. D., Gatenby, J. C., Warton, C., Cannistraci, & ... Jacobson, S. W. (2010). An fMRI study of number processing in childeren with fetal alcohol syndrome. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 34(8), 1450-1464. doi:10.1111/j.1530-0277.2010.01230.x
Spadoni, A. D., Bazinet, A. D., Fryer, S. L., & Tapert, S., Mattson, S. N., & Riley, E. P. (2009). BOLD response during spatial working memory in youth with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 33(12), 2067-2076. doi:10.1111/j.1530-0277.2009.01046.x
Wozniak, J. R., Mueller, B. A., Chang, P.-N., Muetzel, R. L., Caros, L., & Lin, K. O. (2006). Diffusion tensor imaging in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 30(10), 1799-1806. doi:10.1111/j.1530-0277.2006.00213.x
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggestion that a pregnant woman should not drink alcohol during pregnancy (Advisory on alcohol use in pregnancy 2005) has been widely criticized as being unnecessarily paternalistic, but the CDC goes further into explaining that, “Alcohol consumed during pregnancy increases the risk of alcohol related birth defects, including growth deficiencies, facial abnormalities, central nervous system impairment, behavioral disorders, and impaired intellectual development” (Advisory on alcohol use in pregnancy
Zeigler, Donald. "The neurocognitive effects of alcohol on adolescents and college students." Preventive Medicine 40. (2004): 23 – 32. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. .
lip, skin folds at the corners of the eyes, indistinct groove on the upper lip, and an
a patient's birth defects. In other words, FAE is a less severe form of FAS.
Most alcoholics proceed to a stage where their brains or their bodies have been so harmed by alcohol that the effects persist even when they are not drinking. This stage may be reached...
The article “Adolescent Brain Development and Underage Drinking in the United States: Identifying Risks of Alcohol Use in College Populations” written by Marisa Silveri, PhD, aims to emphasize the the negative behavioral consequences with underage alcohol use. Silveri is a highly decorated professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, who has been studying the neurobiology of brain development and consequences of alcohol and drug abuse using preclinical and clinical models for two decades. Her substantial background in psychology and neurobiology make her a highly credible source, and improves the author’s chance of making the point really stick. The article is easy to follow, and split up in subcategories that each cover a specific point the author is trying to make. Professor Silveri, with great credibility, uses logic and also emotional appeal to effectively convince the reader that alcohol use affects the brain negatively, and the importance to discourage the excessive consumption of alcohol by adolescents.
Burd, L. and Martsolf, J. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Diagnosis and Syndromal Variability. Physiology and Behavior, 46:39-43 (1989).
Hoyme, H. E., May, P. A., Kalberg, W. O., Kodituwakku, P., Gossage, J. P., Trujillo, P. M., et al. (2005). A Practical Clinical Approach to Diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Clarification of the 1996 Institute of Medicine Criteria. Pediatrics, 39-47.
A mother who drinks while she is pregnant stands a high risk of harming their unborn child because the alcohol passes through her blood to her baby, and that can harm the development of the baby’s cells. This is most likely to harm the baby’s brain and spinal cord. Many of the common effects of a child suffering from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is: distinctive facial features, growth problems making them smaller than the average child, and learning and behavior problems.
The National Institution of Health published this article for the purpose of explaining about the human brain and it’s relation to alcohol. According to the article, people with alcoholism have been known to have problems with skills in their prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that controls decision-making and emotions. These same people show exaggerated neural responses in the dorsal striatum due to alcohol-related cues. This information shows that excessive drinking can affect learning and control of behavior and emotion. This information can be helpful in my paper because it explains that alcohol is a disease that affects the brain and it will help me try to prove my point of view.
Merrick J, Merrick E, Morad M, Kandel I. (2006). Fetal alcohol syndrome and its long-term effects. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Faculty of Health Sciences Jun;58(3):211-8.
Slutske, W. S., D’Onofrio, B. M., Turkheimer, E., Emery, R. E., Harden, K. P., Heath, A. C., et al. (2008). Searching for an environmental effect of parental alcoholism on offspring alcohol use disorder: A genetically informed study of children of alcoholics. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117, 534-551.
Heavy drinking is more damaging to both body and brain than smaller amounts of alcohol consumed more often because extremely high blood alcohol levels are toxic to organs, severely impair sensory and cognitive functions, and encourage habit formation or addiction. A youthful brain has weaker controls that would stop a person from drinking too much. Scientists are finding clues in the brain that may help them identify the most vulnerable young people in hopes of halting problem drinking before it starts. According to psychiatry researcher Reagan R. Wetherill of the University of Pennsylvania, “the aim is to bolster brain development ‘just enough’ so that young people can ‘inhibit their own drinking behaviors before they act’”. In the study, the 21 kids who had begun heavy drinking had, in their...
These children tend to have issues with impulse control, hyperactivity, disputes with socially acceptable behaviors and actions, and impaired learning. These are a few illustrations of the dominance this disease has over the child (Harvard Mental Health, 2004, p. 1). According to Harvard Mental Health (2004) mental retardation in children is most commonly caused by Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (p. 1). In the United States, statistics state that about 12,000 children are born each year with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
In utero, something that can be tested is habituation, which is a decrease in responsiveness to repeated stimuli.9 In a study done by Hepper, results indicated that the fetus’ response to a binge-like alcohol exposure, increased the number of trials required to habituate and also increased the variability in performance. This could be interpreted as the alcohol negatively affecting the neural integrity and the brain areas involved in habituation, potentially the hippocampus and the pre-frontal cortex.9 Structural damage in the brain could result in abnormalities in development after birth.