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Published on: August 5, 2017
An FMRI study of number processing in children with fetal alcohol syndrome
Ernesta M Meintjes1, Joseph L Jacobson, Christopher D Molteno
1MRC/UCT Medical Imaging Research Unit, Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa. ernesta.meintjes@uct.ac.za
Insights
Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FAS/PFAS) show altered brain activation during number tasks, recruiting more brain regions than controls. These findings highlight persistent neurobiological effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on numerical cognition.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Pediatrics
Background:
- Prenatal alcohol exposure is linked to number processing deficits in children.
- Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FAS/PFAS) represent a spectrum of neurodevelopmental abnormalities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural correlates of number processing in children with FAS/PFAS.
- To compare brain activation patterns between children with FAS/PFAS and typically developing controls during numerical tasks.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed.
- Participants included children diagnosed with FAS/PFAS and matched controls.
- Number processing was assessed using Proximity Judgment and Exact Addition tasks.
Main Results:
- Control children activated a typical fronto-parietal network.
- Children with FAS/PFAS showed recruitment of additional parietal regions during Proximity Judgment.
- Widespread cerebellar and cortical activation was observed in FAS/PFAS children during Exact Addition.
Conclusions:
- Children with FAS/PFAS utilize a broader neural network for number processing compared to controls.
- Findings support structural neuroimaging data implicating the parietal lobe in prenatal alcohol exposure effects.
- Abnormal brain activation during number processing in FAS/PFAS persists, independent of IQ and intracranial volume.
Background:
Number processing deficits are frequently seen in children exposed to alcohol in utero.
Methods:
Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine the neural correlates of number processing in 15 right-handed, 8- to 12-year-old children diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or partial FAS (PFAS) and 18 right-handed, age- and gender-matched controls from the Cape Coloured (mixed ancestry) community in Cape Town, South Africa, using Proximity Judgment and Exact Addition tasks.
Results:
Control children activated the expected fronto-parietal network during both tasks, including the anterior horizontal intraparietal sulcus (HIPS), left posterior HIPS, left precentral sulcus, and posterior medial frontal cortex. By contrast, on the Proximity Judgment task, the exposed children recruited additional parietal pathways involving the right and left angular gyrus and posterior cingulate/precuneus, which may entail verbally mediated recitation of numbers and/or subtraction to assess relative numerical distances. During Exact Addition, the exposed children exhibited more diffuse and widespread activations, including the cerebellar vermis and cortex, which have been found to be activated in adults engaged in particularly challenging number processing problems.
Conclusions:
The data suggest that, whereas control children rely primarily on the fronto-parietal network identified in previous studies to mediate number processing, children with FAS/PFAS recruit a broader range of brain regions to perform these relatively simple number processing tasks. Our results are consistent with structural neuroimaging findings indicating that the parietal lobe is relatively more affected by prenatal alcohol exposure and provide the first evidence for brain activation abnormalities during number processing in children with FAS/PFAS, effects that persist even after controlling statistically for group differences in total intracranial volume and IQ.
