COGNITIVE BRAIN POTENTIAL ALTERATIONS IN BOYS EXPOSED TO OPIATES - IN-UTERO AND LIFE-STYLE COMPARISONS

Several studies have observed that intrauterine exposure to opiates re sults in emotional and cognitive complications for the child, but gene tic and postnatal social-environmental factors may also affect the CNS development of these children. To assess the relative contribution of the in utero and social-environmental (lifestyle) effects of opiate e xposure, event-related potentials (ERPs) and performance were studied in three groups of 7- to 12-year-old boys: (1) the in utero/lifestyle group (IU/LS) contained 16 boys who were exposed to opiates (in utero and lived with opiate-abusing mothers, (2) the lifestyle group (LS) in cluded 14 boys who lived with opiate-abusing mothers, and (3) the cont rol group (CON) composed of 13 boys. The cognitive ERP components and task performance were recorded in the Auditory Rare Event Monitoring ( AREM) task and the Sternberg Memory task (Sternberg, 1975). On the ARE M and Sternberg Memory tasks, P200 component was significantly decreas ed for the IU/LS and LS groups. On the Sternberg Memory task, percent correct was also significantly impaired in IU/LS and LS groups. The ER P alterations in the boys living with opiate-abusing mothers with and without intrauterine opiate exposure were similar. A dysfunctional soc ial environment may contribute to the cognitive deficits seen in the s ons of opiate-abusing mothers.