<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

The world over, people drink in order to socialize, celebrate, and relax, despite the negative health effects of alcohol. Three periods of dynamic brain changes are evidenced to be particularly sensitive to the harmful effects of alcohol: gestation (from conception to birth), later adolescence (15-19 years), and older adulthood (over 65 years). This article is concentrated only on the negative effects of alcohol in children who have been exposed to alcohol before birth, known as foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).
This is a review based on published data in PubMed over the last two decades and is an analysis of more than 150 published papers.
Alcohol use during pregnancy can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, and a range of lifelong physical, behavioural, and intellectual disabilities. The effects of ethanol are expressed on a set of molecules involved in neuroinflammation, myelination, neurotransmission, and neuron function.
Modern neuroimaging techniques are able to specify some fine structural changes in the affected areas of the brain: volume reductions in the frontal lobe, including the middle frontal gyri in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampal structure, interhemispheric connectivity, abnormalities in glial cells, white matter deficits etc. Corpus callosum myelination is affected, resulting in a lack of the inter-hemispheric connectivity. This is known to facilitate autism, stroke, schizophrenia, as well as dementia, disrupts cognitive performance, and may lead to neurobehavioral deficits.
It was pointed out that many symptoms and neuroimaging characteristics are similar in ADHD and FAS, thus the anamnesis for prenatal alcohol and nicotine exposure must be taken very seriously in order to better understand and interpret clinical symptoms.
</abstract>

The world over, people drink in order to socialize, celebrate, and relax, despite the negative health effects of alcohol. Three periods of dynamic brain changes are evidenced to be particularly sensitive to the harmful effects of alcohol: gestation (from conception to birth), later adolescence (15-19 years), and older adulthood (over 65 years). This article is concentrated only on the negative effects of alcohol in children who have been exposed to alcohol before birth, known as foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).
This is a review based on published data in PubMed over the last two decades and is an analysis of more than 150 published papers.
Alcohol use during pregnancy can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, and a range of lifelong physical, behavioural, and intellectual disabilities. The effects of ethanol are expressed on a set of molecules involved in neuroinflammation, myelination, neurotransmission, and neuron function.
Modern neuroimaging techniques are able to specify some fine structural changes in the affected areas of the brain: volume reductions in the frontal lobe, including the middle frontal gyri in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampal structure, interhemispheric connectivity, abnormalities in glial cells, white matter deficits etc. Corpus callosum myelination is affected, resulting in a lack of the inter-hemispheric connectivity. This is known to facilitate autism, stroke, schizophrenia, as well as dementia, disrupts cognitive performance, and may lead to neurobehavioral deficits.
It was pointed out that many symptoms and neuroimaging characteristics are similar in ADHD and FAS, thus the anamnesis for prenatal alcohol and nicotine exposure must be taken very seriously in order to better understand and interpret clinical symptoms.

How Alcohol Damages Brain Development in Children

PRILOZI

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"How Alcohol Damages Brain Development in Children"}

The world over, people drink in order to socialize, celebrate, and relax, despite the negative health effects of alcohol. Three periods of dynamic brain...

How Alcohol Damages Brain Development in Children

Published Online: Dec 04, 2022

Page range: 29 - 42

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/prilozi-2022-0034

Keywords
foetal alcohol syndrome, neuropsychological characteristics, neuroimaging, modern approach

© 2022 Nada Pop-Jordanova et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

How Alcohol Damages Brain Development in Children

Published Online: Dec 04, 2022

Page range: 29 - 42

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/prilozi-2022-0034

Keywordsfoetal alcohol syndrome, neuropsychological characteristics, neuroimaging, modern approach

© 2022 Nada Pop-Jordanova et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
foetal alcohol syndrome, neuropsychological characteristics, neuroimaging, modern approach