Fetal alcohol exposure associated with a decrease in cognitive performance

November, 2010

Fetal exposure to large amounts of alcohol is found to be associated with reduced cognitive efficiency in perception, attention and recognition memory, in older children.

Data from 217 children from Inuit communities in Arctic Quebec (average age 11), of whom some had mothers that reported binge drinking during pregnancy, has revealed that the alcohol-exposed group, while similar to the control in accuracy and reaction time, showed a significant differences in their brains’ electrical activity while doing those tasks (a Go/No-go response inhibition task and a continuous recognition memory task). The differences suggest that fetal alcohol exposure is associated with reduced efficiency in the initial extracting of the meaning of a stimulus, reduced allocation of attention to the task, and poorer conscious recognition memory processing.

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