Effects of early alcohol exposure on functional organization and microstructure of a visual tactile integrative circuit

摘要

BackgroundChildren with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) often have deficits associated with multisensory processing. Because ethanol disrupts activity-dependent neuronal plasticity, a process that is essential for refining connections during cortical development, we hypothesize that early alcohol exposure results in alterations in multisensory cortical networks, which could explain the multisensory processing deficits seen in FASD. Here, we use a gyrencephalic animal model to test the prediction that early alcohol exposure alters the functional connectivity and microstructural features of the rostral posterior parietal cortex (PPr), a visual-tactile integrative area.