Working memory and visuospatial deficits correlate with oculomotor control in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Previous studies have demonstrated that children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) exhibit deficits in measures of eye movement control that probe aspects of visuospatial processing and working memory. The goal of the present study was to examine, in a large cohort of children with FASD, prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) but not FASD, and typically developing control children, the relationship between performance in eye movement tasks and standardized psychometric tests that assess visuospatial processing and working memory. Participants for this dataset were drawn from a large, multi-site investigation, and included children and adolescents aged 5-17 years diagnosed with an FASD (n=71), those with PAE but no clinical FASD diagnosis (n=20), and typically developing controls (n=111). Participants completed a neurobehavioral test battery and a series of saccadic eye movement tasks. The FASD group performed worse than controls on the psychometric and eye movement measures of working memory and visuospatial skills. Within the FASD group, digit recall, block recall, and animal sorting were negatively correlated with sequence errors on the memory-guided task, and arrows was negatively correlated with prosaccade endpoint error. There were no significant correlations in the control group. These data suggest that psychometric tests and eye movement control tasks may assess similar domains of cognitive function, and these assessment tools may be measuring overlapping brain regions damaged due to prenatal alcohol exposure. The results of this study demonstrate that eye movement control tasks directly relate to outcome measures obtained with psychometric tests and are able to assess multiple domains of cognition simultaneously, thereby allowing for an efficient and accurate assessment.
Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queens University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Angelina
A
Paolozza
Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Carmen
C
Rasmussen
Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Jacqueline
J
Pei
Manitoba FASD Centre, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
Ana
A
Hanlon-Dearman
Department of Genetics, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Sarah M
SM
Nikkel
Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Gail
G
Andrew
Lakeland Centre for FASD, Cold Lake, AB, Canada.
Audrey
A
McFarlane
Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queens University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Dawa
D
Samdup
Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queens University, Kingston, ON, Canada. Electronic address: jnr@queensu.ca.
James N
JN
Reynolds
D000293:Adolescent; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000494:pharmacology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D000431:Ethanol / Q000009:adverse effects; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005133:Eye Movements; D005260:Female; D063647:Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D011594:Psychometrics; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013028:Space Perception; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014796:Visual Perception
D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D000431:Ethanol
Eye movements; Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder; Prenatal alcohol exposure; Visual-spatial skills; Visuospatial skills; Working memory