Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Alters Error Detection During Simple Arithmetic Processing: An Electroencephalography Study

• Published in: Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research Vol. 44; no. 1; pp. 114 - 124
• Main Authors: Ben‐Shachar, Mattan S., Shmueli, Michael, Jacobson, Sandra W., Meintjes, Ernesta M., Molteno, Christopher D., Jacobson, Joseph L., Berger, Andrea
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.01.2020
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult; Alcohol Drinking - adverse effects; Alcohol Drinking - epidemiology; Alcohol Drinking - trends; Alcohol use; Arithmetic; Brain - physiopathology; Bursts; Cognition; Cohort Studies; Diagnosis; EEG; Electroencephalography; Electroencephalography - methods; Electroencephalography - trends; Error correction & detection; Error Detection; Exposure; Female; Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders; Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders - epidemiology; Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders - physiopathology; Fetal Alcohol Syndrome; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Mathematical Concepts; Mathematics; Numerical Processing; Pregnancy; Prenatal Alcohol Exposure; Prenatal experience; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects - chemically induced; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects - epidemiology; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects - physiopathology; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Verification; Young Adult; Fetal Alcohol Syndrome; Electroencephalography; Numerical Processing; Error Detection; Prenatal Alcohol Exposure; Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
• DOI: 10.1111/acer.14244
• ISSN: 0145-6008

Background Arithmetic is the domain of academic achievement most consistently related to prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE). Error detection, an important aspect of arithmetic processing, can be examined in a mathematical verification task. Electroencephalographic (EEG) studies using such tasks have shown bursts of synchronized theta‐band activity in response to errors. We assessed this activity for error detection in adolescents with PAE and typically developing (TD) matched controls. We predicted that the PAE group would show smaller theta bursts during error detection and weaker responses depending on the size of the error discrepancy. Methods Participants’ mothers were recruited during pregnancy and interviewed about their alcohol consumption using a timeline follow‐back interview. Participants were followed from infancy and diagnosed for fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or partial FAS (PFAS) by expert dysmorphologists. EEGs were recorded for 48 adolescents during a verification task, which required differentiation between correct/incorrect solutions to simple equations; incorrect solutions had small or large deviations from correct solutions. Results Performance was good–excellent. The PAE group showed lower accuracy than the TD group: Accuracy was inversely related to diagnosis severity. The TD and heavily exposed (HE) nonsyndromal groups showed the expected differentiation in theta‐burst activity between correct/incorrect equations, but the FAS/PFAS groups did not. Degree of impairment in brain response to errors reflected severity of diagnosis: The HE group showed the same differentiation between correct/incorrect solutions as TD but failed to differentiate between levels of discrepancy; PFAS showed theta reactions only in response to large error discrepancies; and FAS did not respond to small or large discrepancies. Conclusions Arithmetical error–related theta activity is altered by PAE and can be used to distinguish between exposed and nonexposed individuals and within diagnostic groups, supporting the use of numerical and quantitative processing patterns to derive a neurocognitive profile that could facilitate diagnosis and treatment of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Using a mathematical equations error detection task, adolescents prenatally exposed to alcohol demonstrated poorer accuracy and impaired brain responses. In the figure: topographic head maps of low theta (4 to 5 Hz) activity show greater differentiation between correct (Crr; e.g., 1 + 1 = 2) compared with incorrect solutions (L1, e.g., 1 + 1 = 3; L5, e.g., 1 + 1 = 7) for typically developing (TD) control adolescents, intermediate levels for the nonsyndromal heavily exposed (HE) group, and no differentiation in the fetal alcohol syndromal (FAS) and partial FAS groups.