Wm. Kaneko et al., AUDITORY EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS IN FETAL ALCOHOL SYNDROME AND DOWNS-SYNDROME CHILDREN, Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research, 20(1), 1996, pp. 35-42
Abnormal or borderline electroencephalograms are commonly observed in
cases of gross mental retardation. However, fewer studies have focused
on the use of event-related responses to aid in the differential diag
nosis of developmental cognitive disorders, Fetal alcohol syndrome (FA
S) and Down syndrome represent the most common known causes of mental
retardation in the Western world, Although Down syndrome is easily dia
gnosed with a chromosome assay, FAS can be more difficult to diagnose
since the diagnostic features are more subjectively based. The present
study is the first to characterize auditory event-related potentials
(ERPs) in children with FAS and contrast them to subjects with Down sy
ndrome and controls. A passive auditory ''oddball-plus-noise''' paradi
gm was utilized to elicit ERPs. Parietal P300 latencies in response to
the noise-burst stimuli for the FAS children were significantly longe
r, as were the P300s from all cortical sites in Down syndrome subjects
in response to the both the infrequent tone and noise-burst stimuli w
hen compared with the controls, Frontal P300s in Down syndrome childre
n were significantly larger in amplitude compared to the controls and
FAS children in response io the infrequent tone. A discriminant functi
on analysis also revealed that these children could be correctly class
ified as being either Down syndrome, FAS, or normal controls using mea
sures of latency and amplitude of the P300. These data suggest that an
evaluation of ERP characteristics may provide a better understanding
of the differences between FAS and Down syndrome children, and prove t
o be an aid in the early identification of children with FAS, These re
sults demonstrate neurophysiological differences between FAS and Down
syndrome, and suggest that P300 amplitude and latency data collected f
rom a passive ERP task may be helpful in the discrimination of develop
mental cognitive disorders.