Xiangchuan Chen1, Claire D. Coles2,
Mary E. Lynch2, Xiaoping Hu1
1Biomedical Imaging Technology Center,
Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States; 2Department of
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United
States
Neural
basis underlying behavioral alterations induced by prenatal alcohol exposure
(PAE) remains unclear. In this study, fMRI was used to investigate the
cortical functioning of individuals with PAE in sustained and shifting
attention tasks. The results suggest that the composition of the cortical
attention network is not significantly changed by PAE. Instead, the neural
activity of some critical regions in this network (FEF and IPS) is
significantly reduced, resulting in more involvement of other regions when
PAE individuals are performing more difficult tasks. PAE individuals with or
without external features may have different functional reorganization and
compensation mechanisms.