Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: How Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy Affects The Behavioral Patterns In The Unborn Child

Fetal alcohol syndrome is related with a wide range of cognitive problems that occur as a result of exposure to alcohol during the prenatal life. Over the years, many studies have been carried out to find out the exact mechanisms by which alcohol causes the cognitive problems associated with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) in humans.

A study was recently carried out at NYU Langone Medical Center and its Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research (NKI), and published in the journal Neuroscience. The study was targeted at studying the precise mechanism by which alcohol consumption in pregnant women can result in FAS related cognitive disorders in the children.

A mouse model of fetal alcohol syndrome, equivalent to the third trimester in humans, was designed to study these effects. The development of brain in mice continues even after birth and seven postnatal days are equivalent to third trimester pregnancy in humans. During the trial, male mice were injected with a single bolus amount of ethanol seven days before they were born. The mice from the control group were injected with saline.

It was observed that the ethanol-exposed mice spent less time in slow-wave sleep which caused severe sleep fragmentation. The mice that were injected with ethanol were also found to be hyperactive as compared to the mice in the control group. An observation of sleep cycles in ethanol-exposed mice over a 24 hour period established that these mice were more prone to the fragmentation of slow-wave sleep and increased transitions between the sleeping and awake state. Impaired contextual fear conditioning memory was also noted in these mice. All of these findings were absent in the mice in the control group.

Implications Of Fragmentation Of Slow-Wave Sleep In Humans

This study shows that the slow-wave sleep (the profound sleeping state during which human brain converts the day’s events into long term memories) is disrupted in people who are exposed to high levels of alcohol before birth. This fragmentation has a deep impact on the severity of the FAS-related cognitive problems.

According to the researchers, the fact that cognitive problems like learning, memory, attention and emotions arise as a result of sleep fragmentation, has long been known but this study has helped established that it is actually during the prenatal period that binge exposure to alcohol causes long-lasting slow-wave sleep fragmentation, which results in cognitive problems.

The exposure of brain cells to alcohol during developmental changes can seriously impair its ability to regulate sleep and therefore, result in serious cognitive decline including impaired memory, attention deficit, learning problems and emotional instability.

The study has given a deep insight into the memory disorders related with fetal alcohol syndrome. The severity of memory impairment was found to be directly proportional to the rate of sleep fragmentation.

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 This study has proved to be a milestone for formulating therapeutic interventions that target the exact pathology. Therapies for treating the sleep problem can help overcome the broad spectrum of behavioral and cognitive problems related to fetal alcohol syndrome.