TY - JOUR
T1 - Deficits in arithmetic error detection in infants with prenatal alcohol exposure
T2 - An ERP study
AU - Berger, Andrea
AU - Shmueli, Michael
AU - Lisson, Svetlana
AU - Ben-Shachar, Mattan S.
AU - Lindinger, Nadine M.
AU - Lewis, Catherine E.
AU - Dodge, Neil C.
AU - Molteno, Christopher D.
AU - Meintjes, Ernesta M.
AU - Jacobson, Joseph L.
AU - Jacobson, Sandra W.
N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by grants from the NIH/National Institute on Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse ( R21 AA020515 , awarded to A. Berger and S. Jacobson; R01 AA016781 to S. Jacobson); a Lycaki-Young grant from the State of Michigan (awarded to S. Jacobson and J. Jacobson); and an Israel Science Foundation grant 1799/12 (awarded to the Center for the Study of the Neurocognitive Basis of Numerical Cognition, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev ). Publisher Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s)
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is associated with a range of physical, cognitive, and behavioral problems, particularly in arithmetic. We report ERP data collected from 32 infants (mean age = 6.8 mo; SD = 0.6; range = 6.1–8.1; 16 typically developing [TD]; 16 prenatally alcohol-exposed) during a task designed to assess error detection. Evidence of error monitoring at this early age suggests that precursors of the onset of executive control can already be detected in infancy. As predicted, the ERPs of the TD infants, time-locked to the presentation of the solution to simple arithmetic equations, showed greater negative activity for the incorrect solution condition at middle-frontal scalp areas. Spectral analysis indicated specificity to the 6–7 Hz frequency range. By contrast, the alcohol-exposed infants did not show the increased middle-frontal negativity seen in the TD group nor the increased power in the 6–7 Hz frequency, suggesting a marked developmental delay in error detection and/or early impairment in information processing of small quantities. Overall, our research demonstrates that (a) the brain network involved in error detection can be identified and highly specified in TD young infants, and (b) this effect is replicable and can be utilized for studying developmental psychopathology at very early ages.
AB - Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is associated with a range of physical, cognitive, and behavioral problems, particularly in arithmetic. We report ERP data collected from 32 infants (mean age = 6.8 mo; SD = 0.6; range = 6.1–8.1; 16 typically developing [TD]; 16 prenatally alcohol-exposed) during a task designed to assess error detection. Evidence of error monitoring at this early age suggests that precursors of the onset of executive control can already be detected in infancy. As predicted, the ERPs of the TD infants, time-locked to the presentation of the solution to simple arithmetic equations, showed greater negative activity for the incorrect solution condition at middle-frontal scalp areas. Spectral analysis indicated specificity to the 6–7 Hz frequency range. By contrast, the alcohol-exposed infants did not show the increased middle-frontal negativity seen in the TD group nor the increased power in the 6–7 Hz frequency, suggesting a marked developmental delay in error detection and/or early impairment in information processing of small quantities. Overall, our research demonstrates that (a) the brain network involved in error detection can be identified and highly specified in TD young infants, and (b) this effect is replicable and can be utilized for studying developmental psychopathology at very early ages.
KW - EEG phase synchronization
KW - Error detection
KW - Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders
KW - Infants
KW - Prenatal alcohol exposure
KW - Theta
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85074800293&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100722
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100722
M3 - Article
SN - 1878-9293
VL - 40
JO - Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
JF - Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
M1 - 100722
ER -