Fetal Alcohol Exposure Alters BOLD Activation Patterns in Brain Regions Mediating the Interpretation of Facial Affect.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings of greater BOLD signal in the FAS/PFAS group in response to neutral faces suggest less efficient neural processing of more difficult to interpret emotions, and the weaker BOLD response to angry faces suggests altered processing of angry stimuli. Although behavioral performance did not differ in this relatively simple affective appraisal task, these data suggest that in children with FAS and PFAS the appraisal of neutral affect and anger is likely to be more effortful in more challenging and dynamic social contexts.
PMID: 33220071 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research - November 21, 2020 Category: Addiction Authors: Lindinger NM, Jacobson JL, Warton CMR, Malcolm-Smith S, Molteno CD, Dodge NC, Robertson F, Meintjes EM, Jacobson SW Tags: Alcohol Clin Exp Res Source Type: research