The impact of prenatal alcohol exposure on gray matter volume and cortical surface area of 2 to 3-year-old children in a South African birth cohort

Sivenesi Subramoney; Shantanu H Joshi; Catherine J Wedderburn; David Lee; Annerine Roos; Roger P Woods; Heather J Zar; Katherine L Narr; Dan J Stein; Kirsten A Donald

doi:10.1111/acer.14873

The impact of prenatal alcohol exposure on gray matter volume and cortical surface area of 2 to 3-year-old children in a South African birth cohort

Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2022 Jul;46(7):1233-1247. doi: 10.1111/acer.14873. Epub 2022 May 29.

Authors

Sivenesi Subramoney¹, Shantanu H Joshi^{2

3}, Catherine J Wedderburn^{1

4

5}, David Lee³, Annerine Roos^{1

5

6}, Roger P Woods⁷, Heather J Zar^{1

8}, Katherine L Narr⁷, Dan J Stein^{5

9

10}, Kirsten A Donald^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
² Department of Neurology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
³ Department of Bioengineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
⁴ Department of Clinical Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
⁵ The Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
⁶ SA MRC Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
⁷ Departments of Neurology, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
⁸ Unit on Child & Adolescent Health, South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
⁹ Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
¹⁰ SU/UCT MRC Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.

Abstract

Background: There is a growing literature that demonstrates the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) on brain development in school-aged children. Less is known, however, on how PAE impacts the brain early in life. We investigated the effects of PAE and child sex on subcortical gray matter volume, cortical surface area (CSA), cortical volume (CV), and cortical thickness (CT) in children aged 2 to 3 years.

Methods: The sample was recruited as a nested cross-sectional substudy of the Drakenstein Child Health Study. Images from T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging were acquired on 47 alcohol-exposed and 124 control children (i.e., with no or minimal alcohol exposure), aged 2 to 3 years, some of whom were scanned as neonates. Brain images were processed through automated processing pipelines using FreeSurfer version 6.0. Subcortical and a priori selected cortical regions of interest were compared.

Results: Subcortical volume analyses revealed a PAE by child sex interaction for bilateral putamen volumes (Left: p = 0.02; Right: p = 0.01). There was no PAE by child sex interaction effect on CSA, CV, and CT. Analyses revealed an impact of PAE on CSA (p = 0.04) and CV (p = 0.04), but not CT in this age group. Of note, the inferior parietal gyrus CSA was significantly smaller in children with PAE compared to control children.

Conclusions: Findings from this subgroup scanned at age 2 to 3 years build on previously described subcortical volume differences in neonates from this cohort. Findings suggest that PAE persistently affects gray matter development through the critical early years of life. The detectable influence of PAE on brain structure at this early age further highlights the importance of brain imaging studies on the impact of PAE on the young developing brain.

Keywords: brain development; fetal alcohol spectrum disorders; neuroimaging; prenatal alcohol exposure; structural MRI.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Alcohol Drinking / epidemiology*
Birth Cohort
Brain
Child
Child, Preschool
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Gray Matter* / diagnostic imaging
Gray Matter* / pathology
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods
Pregnancy
Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects* / diagnostic imaging
Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects* / pathology
South Africa / epidemiology

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding