PRENATAL COCAINE EXPOSURE EFFECTS ON AROUSAL-MODULATED ATTENTION DURING THE NEONATAL-PERIOD

The organization of arousal and attention as a function of intrauterin e cocaine exposure was investigated in 180 normal nursery infants prio r to hospital discharge and at 1 month of age. This was done by studyi ng visual looking preferences when infants were in three arousal condi tions: less aroused (after feeding); more aroused-endogenous (before f eeding); and more aroused-exogenous (after feeding but including 8-Hz visual stimulation prior to each visual preference trial). The stimuli were light panels illuminated at three temporal frequencies between 1 and 8 Hz presented in pairs using a balanced presentation series of t rials. Infants not exposed to cocaine demonstrated strong arousal-modu lated attention, preferring faster frequencies when less aroused and s lower frequencies when more aroused in both endogenous and exogenous c onditions. In contrast, cocaine-exposed infants showed a lack of arous al-modulated attention and preferred faster frequencies of stimulation regardless of arousal condition. Similar differences in arousal-modul ated attention as a function of cocaine exposure were obtained at 1 mo nth after birth, indicating that these effects lasted longer than woul d be reasonable to attribute to the active presence of cocaine or its metabolites. This form of stimulus-seeking behavior was shown to be in dependent of confounding factors associated with prenatal cocaine expo sure such as the absence of prenatal care, alcohol use, minority statu s, or gender, as well as mediating factors associated with grow th suc h as birthweight. A direct and more chronic effect of intrauterine coc aine exposure on arousal-modulated attention and presumably on the dev eloping CNS therefore was supported. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.