Does your adopted child have difficulty in school, with relationships, and processing information? Have you ever wondered if your child may have been exposed to alcohol while in utero, but thought there was no way to ever know for sure? Some children have facial features that indicate fetal alcohol exposure. Some of these indicating features are small eyes, low-set ears, or lack of a groove between the upper lip and nose to name a few. For children without these features we could only guess about fetal alcohol effect if we did not have contact with birth family. Now Researchers have identified a test, “Eye Blink Conditioning” (EBC), which identifies subcortical deficits that are specifically affected by prenatal alcohol exposure.
Study first author, Sandra W. Jacobson, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Wayne State University School of Medicine explained, “Eye Blink Conditioning” (EBC) involves temporal pairing of a conditioned stimulus, such as a tone, with an unconditioned stimulus, such as an air puff.
Researchers already knew that binge consumption of alcohol during pregnancy impairs the EBC of offspring from animal studies. The recent study on 98 South African five year olds was based on a premise that the EBC paradigm could identify underlying or subcortical deficits specifically affected by prenatal alcohol exposure in children. Researchers paired a tone with a puff of air at the eye for their EBC and found a link between EBC deficit and fetal alcohol exposure. Results indicated that a fundamental element of learning is affected by prenatal alcohol exposure.
Jacobson expects to continue these EBC studies on children of different ages who have fetal alcohol exposure. The findings were published in the February issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
Lynn T. Singer, deputy provost and vice president for academic programs at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said in a prepared statement.
“Second, since normal human infants reach functional capacity on the EBC response by five months of age, and since the EBC deficit appears to be so sensitive, infants at risk can be identified early in life, and intervention programs can begin when the plasticity of the brain is greatest and have the strongest effect,” Singer said.
A separate study showed that young rats were more likely to be attracted to alcohol if exposed to in utero. One may conclude that this is why teenagers who were exposed to alcohol in utero are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol.
The effects of fetal alcohol exposure last for a lifetime. They may include abnormal facial features, growth problems, problems with the central nervous system, trouble remembering and learning, vision or hearing problems, and behavior problems. While special school services, routine, and consistency can help children with fetal alcohol, there is no cure. Women can prevent the effects of fetal alcohol exposure by not drinking alcohol when they are pregnant or might get pregnant.
Photo Credit Julia Fuller 2007