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Frontostriatal connectivity in children during working memory and the effects of prenatal methamphetamine, alcohol,
Florence F Roussotte1, Jeffrey D Rudie, Lynne Smith
1Developmental Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory, Children's Hospital Los Angeles and Department of Pediatrics, University of Southern California, CA 90027, USA.
Insights
Prenatal alcohol and methamphetamine exposure alters brain connectivity in children. Functional connectivity MRI reveals changes in the putamen and caudate, impacting executive functions and corticostriatal networks.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Neuroimaging
Background:
- Prenatal exposure to alcohol and/or methamphetamine is linked to brain abnormalities in children.
- Previous fMRI studies noted a link between working memory performance and putamen activation in exposed children.
- The putamen and caudate nuclei play distinct roles in corticostriatal networks, suggesting potential disruptions in network segregation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the hypothesis that prenatal alcohol and/or methamphetamine exposure leads to a loss of segregation between distinct corticostriatal networks.
- To examine functional connectivity differences in striatal regions during a working-memory task in exposed versus unexposed children.
Main Methods:
- Functional connectivity Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) was used to examine 50 children (ages 7-15).
- Participants included groups with prenatal methamphetamine exposure (with or without alcohol), alcohol-only exposure, and unexposed controls.
- Blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal fluctuations were measured during a working-memory task, focusing on connectivity between four striatal seed regions and the rest of the brain.
Main Results:
- Putamen seeds demonstrated increased connectivity with frontal executive regions in exposed children compared to controls.
- Caudate seeds showed decreased connectivity with some executive regions in both exposed groups.
- These findings indicate altered functional connectivity patterns in children with prenatal substance exposure.
Conclusions:
- Prenatal exposure to alcohol and/or methamphetamine results in localized brain abnormalities and partial rewiring of corticostriatal networks.
- These neurobiological changes may underlie cognitive deficits observed in affected children.
- Understanding these network alterations is crucial for developing targeted treatments and remediation strategies.
Abstract:
Various abnormalities in frontal and striatal regions have been reported in children with prenatal alcohol and/or methamphetamine exposure. In a recent fMRI study, we observed a correlation between accuracy on a working-memory task and functional activation in the putamen in children with prenatal methamphetamine and polydrug exposure. Because the putamen is part of the corticostriatal motor loop whereas the caudate is involved in the executive loop, we hypothesized that a loss of segregation between distinct corticostriatal networks may occur in these participants. The current study was designed to test this hypothesis using functional connectivity MRI. We examined 50 children ranging in age from 7 to 15, including 19 with prenatal methamphetamine exposure (15 of whom had concomitant prenatal alcohol exposure), 13 with prenatal exposure to alcohol but not methamphetamine, and 18 unexposed controls. We measured the coupling between blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) fluctuations during a working-memory task in four striatal seed regions and those in the rest of the brain. We found that the putamen seeds showed increased connectivity with frontal brain regions involved in executive functions while the caudate seeds showed decreased connectivity with some of these regions in both groups of exposed subjects compared to controls. These findings suggest that localized brain abnormalities resulting from prenatal exposure to alcohol and/or methamphetamine lead to a partial rewiring of corticostriatal networks. These results represent important progress in the field, and could have substantial clinical significance in helping devise more targeted treatments and remediation strategies designed to better serve the needs of this population.
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