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New Approaches to Research on the Long‐Term Consequences of Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol
Author(s) -
West James R.,
Goodlett Charles R.,
Brandt Joan P.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1990.tb01227.x
Subject(s) - neuropsychology , prenatal alcohol exposure , brain structure and function , term (time) , intervention (counseling) , presentation (obstetrics) , cognition , cognitive science , psychology , neuroscience , brain function , function (biology) , fetal alcohol , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , computer science , risk analysis (engineering) , medicine , psychiatry , alcohol , biology , physics , radiology , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology , biochemistry
As the summary presentation of a symposium on prenatal alcohol‐induced brain damage and long‐term postnatal consequences, this paper proposes the establishment of two main research priorities—to begin to correlate long‐term behavioral effects with alterations in underlying neural substrates, and to explore the mechanisms of neuroteratogenicity. To reach these goals, three objectives are described. First, animal and human research must become more interrelated. Second, experimental observations should be integrated into formal models that incorporate both neural structure and function. Third, researchers should choose well‐defined dependent measures that are derived from models of brain function based on modern concepts of cognitive neuroscience. Examples of neuropsychological tests that may serve as the bases for structure/function relationships are presented. Incorporating these objectives into future research will facilitate understanding of the fundamental issues concerning prenatal alcohol exposure and will begin to provide the bases for rational intervention or treatment.