Decreased resting-state alpha peak frequency in children and adolescents with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders or prenatal alcohol exposure

Felicha T Candelaria-Cook; Megan E Schendel; Lucinda Flynn; Cassandra Cerros; Piyadasa Kodituwakku; Ludmila N Bakhireva; Dina E Hill; Julia M Stephen

doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101137

Decreased resting-state alpha peak frequency in children and adolescents with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders or prenatal alcohol exposure

Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2022 Oct:57:101137. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101137. Epub 2022 Jul 16.

Authors

Felicha T Candelaria-Cook¹, Megan E Schendel², Lucinda Flynn², Cassandra Cerros³, Piyadasa Kodituwakku⁴, Ludmila N Bakhireva⁵, Dina E Hill³, Julia M Stephen²

Affiliations

¹ The Mind Research Network and Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute, Albuquerque, NM, USA. Electronic address: fccook@mrn.org.
² The Mind Research Network and Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
³ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
⁵ Substance Use Research and Education Center, College of Pharmacy, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM, USA.

Abstract

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) can result in long-lasting changes to physical, behavioral, and cognitive functioning in children. PAE might result in decreased white matter integrity, corticothalamic tract integrity, and alpha cortical oscillations. Previous investigations of alpha oscillations in PAE/fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) have focused on average spectral power at specific ages; therefore, little is known about alpha peak frequency (APF) or its developmental trajectory making this research novel. Using resting-state MEG data, APF was determined from parietal/occipital regions in participants with PAE/FASD or typically developing controls (TDC). In total, MEG data from 157 infants, children, and adolescents ranging in age from 6 months to 17 years were used, including 17 individuals with PAE, 61 individuals with an FASD and 84 TDC. In line with our hypothesis, we found that individuals with PAE/FASD had significantly reduced APF relative to TDC. Both age and group were significantly related to APF with differences between TDC and PAE/FASD persisting throughout development. We did not find evidence that sex or socioeconomic status had additional impact on APF. Reduced APF in individuals with an FASD/PAE may represent a long-term deficit and demonstrates the detrimental impact prenatal alcohol exposure can have on neurophysiological processes.

Keywords: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders; MEG; PAE; Peak Alpha; Resting-state.