PRENATAL EXPOSURE TO ALCOHOL AFFECTS THE ABILITY TO MAINTAIN POSTURALBALANCE

Prenatal exposure to alcohol is known to affect gross motor functionin g, Animal studies have shown that balance is particularly affected, an d there is some evidence that similar deficits exist in alcohol-expose d children, In the current study, postural balance, or the ability to maintain equilibrium, was assessed in a group of alcohol-exposed child ren (ALC group; n = Il)and controls (NC group; n = 11) individually ma tched for age and sex, Balance was measured across six conditions desi gned to systematically manipulate or eliminate visual or somatosensory information. Equilibrium and strategy scores for each condition and a derived composite balance score were analyzed. Although the ALC group had a lower mean composite balance score, their performance was simil ar to that of the NC group on all conditions where somatosensory input was reliable. However, when somatosensory input was manipulated, and when both somatosensory and visual input were inaccurate, the ALC grou p performed more poorly than controls, Interestingly, there were no di fferences between the ALC group and NC group in the type of control st rategy used to maintain balance. These results suggest that alcohol-ex posed children are overly reliant on somatosensory input When this inp ut is atypical, alcohol-exposed children display significantly greater anterior-posterior body sway and are unable to compensate using avail able visual or vestibular information, These deficits may be related t o cerebellar anomalies previously reported in fetal alcohol syndrome c hildren.