SPECIFICITY OF NEUROBEHAVIORAL OUTCOMES ASSOCIATED WITH PRENATAL ALCOHOL EXPOSURE

A current issue in alcohol research is whether a ''neurobehavioral pro file'' can be identified for prenatal alcohol exposure, even when dysm orphic features are not present, or whether comparable neurobehavioral deficits are detected when damage is incurred by numerous neurotoxica nts to which the fetus is exposed during a common developmental period . Failure to detect such differences may, in part, be an artifact of t he global developmental tests used to assess outcome. Cognitive effect s of prenatal exposure to three different teratogens [polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), alcohol, and cocaine] are examined to determine whet her exposure to each substance results in a common or different patter n of impairment on the same set of newer, more narrow band infant test s, Comparison of findings from three independent cohorts indicate that PCB exposure was related to poorer recognition memory on the Pagan Te st of Infant Intelligence (FTII) in Michigan infants exposed prenatall y to PCB-contaminated fish, whereas prenatal alcohol exposure was unre lated to recognition memory but to slower processing speed on a new FT II measure and slower reaction time on Haith's Visual Expectancy Parad igm (VExP) in our Detroit alcohol-exposed infants. Preliminary finding s from a new study of infants recently born to Taiwanese women acciden tally contaminated with sizable amounts of PCBs indicate recognition m emory deficits, confirming our Michigan findings, but no processing sp eed effects on the FTII, Recent findings from our Detroit cohort sugge st that heavy prenatal cocaine exposure is related to poorer recogniti on memory on the FTII, but faster reaction times on the VExP, a patter n different from that seen for either PCBs or alcohol.