Verbal Learning and Memory in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Findings from Cape Town and Detroit
نویسندگان
چکیده
Prenatal alcohol exposure is associated with a range of negative cognitive outcomes in children, including, frequently, impaired verbal learning and memory. The aim if the current research was to replicate previous findings on the effects of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure on verbal learning and memory, as well as elaborate on previous research including children with moderate prenatal alcohol exposure. A continuous measurement of alcohol consumption was included to better assess dose-response relationships. Data from two independent prospective longitudinal cohorts were analysed. The Cape Town Cohort included 29 children with a history of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure, as well as 18 demographically matched controls. The Detroit Cohort included 40 children with a history of moderate-to-heavy prenatal alcohol exposure, as well as 251 light-to non-exposed demographically matched controls. Verbal learning and memory were assessed using the California Verbal Learning Test-Children’s Version. Results showed that, in the Cape Town Cohort, the primary impairment in the heavily-exposed children occurred at the level of encoding; in the Detroit Cohort, in contrast, the primary impairment in moderatelyexposed children was at the level of retrieval. Recognition memory was vulnerable to the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure in both cohorts. Taken together these results indicated that impairments in executive functioning may be the primary cognitive mechanism underlying verbal learning and memory deficits in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
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