Abstract #4458

Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Alters Cortical Functioning in Sustained and Shifting Attention Tasks

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.