FASD impacts brain development throughout childhood and adolescence not just at birth

UAlberta medical researchers examine brain development of FASD participants as they age

2013-08-01

(Press-News.org) Medical researchers at the University of Alberta recently published findings showing that brain development is delayed throughout childhood and adolescence for people born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

Christian Beaulieu and Carmen Rasmussen, the two primary investigators in the research study, recently published the results of their work in the peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Neuroscience. Their team scanned 17 people with FASD, and 27 people without the disorder, who were between 5 and 15 years old. Each participant underwent two to three scans, with each scan taking place two to four years apart. This is the first research study involving multiple scans of the same FASD study participants.

Researchers used an advanced MRI method that examines white matter in the brain. White matter forms connections between various regions of the brain and usually develops significantly during childhood and adolescence. Those who took part in the study were imaged multiple times, to see what kinds of changes occurred in brain development as the participants aged. Those without the disorder had marked increases in brain volume and white matter – growth that was lacking in those with FASD. However, the advanced MRI method revealed greater changes in the brain wiring of white matter in the FASD group, which the authors suggest may reflect compensation for delays in development earlier in childhood.

"These findings may suggest that significant brain changes happened earlier in the study participants who didn't have FASD," says the study's first author, Sarah Treit, who is a student in the Centre for Neuroscience at the U of A. "This study suggests alcohol-induced injury with FASD isn't static – those with FASD have altered brain development, they aren't developing at the same rate as those without the disorder. And our research showed those with FASD consistently scored lower on all cognitive measures in the study."

Treit said the research team also made other important observations. Children with FASD who demonstrated the greatest changes in white matter development also made the greatest gains in reading ability – "so the connection seems relevant." And those with the most severe FASD showed the greatest changes in white matter brain wiring. Scans also confirmed those with FASD have less overall brain volume – this issue neither rectified itself nor worsened throughout the course of the study.

Beaulieu is a researcher in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, while Rasmussen works in the Department of Pediatrics. Their research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

The team is continuing their research in this area, in hopes of finding a biomarker for FASD, and to examine how the brain changes from adolescence into adulthood in those with the disorder. The advanced MRI imaging the team used can pinpoint brain damage present in those with FASD, and could one day guide medical interventions for those with the disorder, which affects one in every 100 Canadians.

INFORMATION:

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

BMJ editorial: India's research participant protection policy

2013-08-01

In an editorial published online today in BMJ, Johns Hopkins bioethicist Jeremy Sugarman and other experts warn that action is urgently needed to deal with possible unintended consequences of India's new policy protecting research participants. Passed earlier this year, the Drugs and Cosmetics Act (First Amendment) Rules, was meant to mitigate ethical concerns with potential serious consequences for public health, as well as India's viability as a continued global leader in clinical research. However, Sugarman and his co-authors highlight specific concerns that could ...

Figuring out flow dynamics

2013-08-01

Turbulence is all around us—in the patterns that natural gas makes as it swirls through a transcontinental pipeline or in the drag that occurs as a plane soars through the sky. Reducing such turbulence on say, an airplane wing, would cut down on the amount of power the plane has to put out just to get through the air, thereby saving fuel. But in order to reduce turbulence—a very complicated phenomenon—you need to understand it, a task that has proven to be quite a challenge. Since 2006, Beverley McKeon, professor of aeronautics and associate director of the Graduate ...

Understanding the effects of genes on human traits

2013-08-01

This news release is available in French. Recent technological developments in genomics have revealed a large number of genetic influences on common complex diseases, such as diabetes, asthma, cancer or schizophrenia. However, discovering a genetic variant predisposing to a disease is only a first step. To apply this knowledge towards prevention or cure, including tailoring treatment to the patient's genetic profile –also known as personalized medicine – we need to know how this genetic variant affects health. In a study published today in Nature Communications, ...

Chanel, UCSB's corpse flower, blooms and causes a big stink

2013-08-01

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Chanel, UC Santa Barbara's corpse flower, has finally spread her odiferous wings, broadcasting a stench that smells like a cross between rotting flesh and Limburger cheese. "It's disgusting," said UCSB junior Connor Way, who visited Wednesday morning. "It's pretty nasty." Other visitors said Chanel smelled like "French cheese" or "a dead rat in a wall." Alex Feldwinn, a computer technician in the Life Science Computing Group at UCSB said, "It really smells like a dead animal –– not just a dead animal, but a rotting one." Edith Ogella, a longtime ...

Therapy for severe vasculitis shows long-term effectiveness

2013-08-01

Administering the drug rituximab once weekly for one month provides the same benefits as 18 months of daily immunosuppressive therapy in people with severe forms of vasculitis, or inflammation of the blood vessels, a study has found. Researchers from the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN), an international clinical trials group funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), found that rituximab is as effective as the standard therapy at inducing and maintaining disease remission. The findings appear ...

Fertility therapy not associated with long-term cardiovascular disease

2013-08-01

Women who gave birth following fertility treatment had no long-term increased risk of death or major cardiovascular events compared to women who gave birth without fertility therapy, according to new research by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and Women's College Hospital. The findings, published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, are the first to show fertility medications, which can cause short-term pregnancy complications, are not associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease later in life. "The speculated ...

New Explorer mission chooses the 'just-right' orbit

2013-08-01

Principal Investigator George Ricker likes to call it the "Goldilocks orbit" — it's not too close to Earth and her Moon, and it's not too far. In fact, it's just right. And as a result of this never-before-used orbit — advanced and fine-tuned by NASA engineers and other members of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) team — the Explorer mission led by Ricker will be perfectly positioned to map the locations of more than 500 transiting exoplanets, extrasolar planets that periodically eclipse each one's host star. When the two-year mission begins in the 2017-2018 ...

NASA technologist makes traveling to hard-to-reach destinations easier

2013-08-01

Traveling to remote locations sometimes involves navigating through stop-and-go traffic, traversing long stretches of highway and maneuvering sharp turns and steep hills. The same can be said for guiding spacecraft to far-flung destinations in space. It isn't always a straight shot. A NASA technologist has developed a fully automated tool that gives mission planners a preliminary set of detailed directions for efficiently steering a spacecraft to hard-to-reach interplanetary destinations, such as Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, and most comets and asteroids. The tool, the ...

NASA finds powerful storms in quickly intensifying Tropical Storm Gil

2013-08-01

No sooner had Tropical Storm Flossie dissipated then another tropical cyclone called Tropical Depression 7E formed yesterday, July 30, in the eastern Pacific Ocean. NASA's TRMM satellite saw "hot towers" in the storm's center early on July 31, that indicated it would likely strengthen, and it became Tropical Storm Gil hours later. NASA and the Japan Space Agency's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite traveled above intensifying tropical storm Gil on July 31, 2013 at 0455 UTC or 12:55 a.m. EDT. The TRMM satellite pass showed that Gil was already very well ...

Satellite sees Flossie fizzle fast

2013-08-01

Tropical Depression Flossie fizzled fast on July 30 in the Central Pacific Ocean. Satellite imagery on July 31 showed remnant clouds northwest of the Hawaiian Island chain. NOAA's Central Pacific Hurricane Center issued the final advisory on the remnants of Tropical Depression Flossie on July 30 at 1500 UTC/11 a.m. EDT. At that time Flossie's remnant low pressure area was centered near 22.3 north latitude and 159.8 west longitude, about 140 miles west-northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. The low pressure area was still moving to the west-northwest at 16 knots and the maximum ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Printed skin to replace animal testing

Precision medicine could be possible in the fight against antibiotic resistance

Researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University identify new targeted approach to protect neurons against degeneration

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

[Press-News.org] FASD impacts brain development throughout childhood and adolescence not just at birth
UAlberta medical researchers examine brain development of FASD participants as they age