Prenatal exposure to antiepileptic drugs and early processing of emotionally relevant sounds

• Published in: Epilepsy & behavior 2019-11, Vol.100 (Pt A), p.106503-106503, Article 106503
• Main Authors: Videman, Mari, Stjerna, Susanna, Wikström, Valtteri, Nybo, Taina, Roivainen, Reina, Vanhatalo, Sampsa, Huotilainen, Minna, Gaily, Eija
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Epilepsy; Evoked potentials; Fetal; Intrauterine; Newborn; Pregnancy
• ISSN: 1525-5050; 1525-5069
• DOI: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2019.106503

Prenatal exposure to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) is associated with developmental compromises in verbal intelligence and social skills in childhood. Our aim was to evaluate whether a multifeature Mismatch Negativity (MMN) paradigm assessing semantic and emotional components of linguistic and emotional processing would be useful to detect possible alterations in early auditory processing of newborns with prenatal AED exposure. Data on AED exposure, pregnancy outcome, neuropsychological evaluation of the mothers, information on maternal epilepsy type, and a structured neurological examination of the newborn were collected prospectively. Blinded to AED exposure, we compared a cohort of 36 AED-exposed with 46 control newborns at the age of two weeks by measuring MMN with a multifeature paradigm with six linguistically relevant deviant sounds and three emotionally uttered sounds. Frontal responses for the emotionally uttered stimulus Happy differed significantly in the exposed newborns compared with the control newborns. In addition, responses to sounds with or without emotional component differed in newborns exposed to multiple AEDs compared with control newborns or to newborns exposed to only one AED. These preliminary findings suggest that prenatal AED exposure may alter early processing of emotionally and linguistically relevant sound information. •Fetal antiepileptic drug exposure may alter early processing of sound information.•Processing of both emotionally and linguistically relevant information is affected.•Present findings might reflect an early precursor of developmental challenge.