Sensorimotor network alterations in children and youth with prenatal alcohol exposure

• Published in: Human brain mapping 2018-05, Vol.39 (5), p.2258-2268
• Main Authors: Long, Xiangyu, Little, Graham, Beaulieu, Christian, Lebel, Catherine
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Age Factors; Alcohol use; Alcohols; Brain; Brain Mapping; Child; Children; Children & youth; Correlation of Data; Cortex (somatosensory); Exposure; Female; fetal alcohol spectrum disorder; Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders - diagnostic imaging; Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders - pathology; Functional anatomy; Functional Laterality; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Network analysis; Neural networks; Neural Pathways - diagnostic imaging; Neural Pathways - pathology; neurodevelopment; Neuroimaging; prenatal alcohol exposure; Prenatal experience; resting‐state functional MRI; Sensorimotor Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Sensorimotor Cortex - pathology; sensorimotor network
• ISSN: 1065-9471; 1097-0193; 1097-0193
• DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24004

Children with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) often have impaired sensorimotor function. While altered brain structure has been noted in sensorimotor areas, the functional brain alterations remain unclear. This study aims to investigate sensorimotor brain networks in children and youth with PAE using resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs‐fMRI). A parcellation‐based network analysis was performed to identify brain networks related to hand/lower limb and face/upper limb function in 59 children and youth with PAE and 50 typically developing controls. Participants with PAE and controls had similar organization of the hand and face areas within the primary sensorimotor cortex, but participants with PAE had altered functional connectivity (FC) between the sensorimotor regions and the rest of the brain. The sensorimotor regions in the PAE group showed less connectivity to certain hubs of the default mode network and more connectivity to areas of the salience network. Overall, our results show that despite similar patterns of organization in the sensorimotor network, subjects with PAE have increased FC between this network and other brain areas, perhaps suggesting overcompensation. These alterations in the sensorimotor network lay the foundation for future studies to evaluate interventions and treatments to improve motor function in children with PAE.