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Updated: Aug 19, 2026
Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns
Published on: May 12, 2019
Visual evoked potentials and visual processing in stimulant drug-exposed infants
R L Hansen1, J M Struthers, S M Gospe
1School of Medicine, University of California, Davis 95616.
Insights
Infants exposed to prenatal drugs like cocaine and amphetamines show impaired visual recognition memory. However, neurological maturity, assessed via visual evoked potentials (VEPs), remains unaffected, suggesting specific cognitive rather than general neurological deficits.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Pediatrics
Background:
- Prenatal exposure to stimulants such as cocaine and amphetamines is linked to adverse infant outcomes, particularly neurological abnormalities.
- The infant visual system offers a potential avenue for assessing early neurological development and function.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of prenatal drug exposure on infant visual system functioning.
- To compare visual evoked potentials (VEPs) and visual recognition memory in drug-exposed infants versus controls.
Main Methods:
- Eight infants with documented prenatal exposure to cocaine and/or amphetamines were compared to eight matched controls.
- Participants underwent visual evoked potential (VEP) testing to assess neurological maturity.
- Visual recognition memory was evaluated using standardized testing procedures.
Main Results:
- Infants with prenatal drug exposure performed significantly worse on visual recognition memory tasks compared to controls.
- No significant differences were observed between the groups in visual evoked potential (VEP) measurements.
- There were no correlations found between VEP results and visual recognition memory performance within either group.
Conclusions:
- The observed deficits in visual recognition memory among infants exposed prenatally to drugs are not attributable to differences in neurological maturity as indicated by VEPs.
- These findings suggest that prenatal stimulant exposure may selectively impact specific cognitive functions, such as memory, rather than global neurological development.
Abstract:
Prenatal exposure to cocaine and amphetamines has been associated with many adverse effects in infants, including neurological abnormalities. Recent evidence shows that the visual system may be useful in infancy to evaluate neurological functioning. Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) and visual recognition memory testing were carried out on eight infants with prenatal drug-exposure and eight controls, matched for ethnicity and socio-economic status. The drug-exposed infants performed significantly worse on the visual recognition test. However, there were no differences between groups on VEP testing and no correlations between tests. The results suggest that the difficulties found in visual recognition memory of drug-exposed infants are not related to neurological maturity, as measured by VEPs.
