Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)
Caused by consuming alcohol during pregnancy, leading to some abnormal features:
- narrower eyes
- reduced philtrum (groove above lip)
- thinner upper lip
And some cognitive behaviour deficits:
- poor executive control
- attention deficits
- impaired learning and memory
Brain abnormalities:
- Smaller cerebral cortex, specifically the
- **inferior parietal lobe
- superior temporal area
- superior ventral frontal area
- Wider Sulci
- Reduced volume in white matter
- reduced size in cerebellum
- smaller, or in fact missing corpus callosum
- smaller basal ganglia
- particularly the caudate nucleus
- smaller hippocampi
no drinks when pregnant!!!!! Unfortunate circumstance for women.
Gestation and Transgenerational Effects
Exposure to stress or infection during pregnancy is linked to an increase risk of depression, schizophrenia, and Autism.
The environment the mother is exposed to directly affects the neurodevelopment of the fetus. This is because the fetus i bathing in whatever is circulating in the mother’s bloodstream.
This exposure can also affect the next generations down the line. This is because the fetus’ germ cells (reproductive cells) are also developed while in the mother.
Environment Richness
Enriching the environment with more neuronal-stimulating tasks causes more dendritic arborization (see Differentiation and Synaptogenesis).
Alcohol Consumption
Consuming alcohol during adolescence can lead to:
- verbal learning deficits
- visuospatial processing deficits
- memory deficits
- attention deficits
- developmental decreases in grey matter
- less development of white matter, and can affect the integrity of white matter
- less connectivity
- greater neural activation during task performance
Moderate increases in alcohol consumption accelerated brain aging.
