3-181 - Prenatal Cocaine Exposure and Regulatory Processes: Underlying Mechanisms

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Prenatal drug exposure continues to be a public health concern as national data indicate that 5.9% of pregnant women use illicit drugs, often in addition to tobacco and/or alcohol (SAMHSA, 2013). Systematic reviews of the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure have shown few long-term effects on general performance measures among children (Ackerman et al., 2010) and adolescents (Buckingham-Howes et al., 2013), after analyses are adjusted for other prenatal exposures and environmental confounds. However, limited attention has been directed to the underlying brain and behavioral mechanisms associated with prenatal cocaine exposure. This symposium brings together reports from three NIDA-funded research teams who are conducting longitudinal evaluations on brain and behavioral mechanisms among children and adolescents with prenatal drug exposure, using unique and innovative data collection methods and analyses to examine arousal/attention regulatory systems. The first study tests a conceptual model that links prenatal drug exposure with two aspects of self-regulation: effortful control and conscience, using maternal harshness and poor child language development as potential pathways. The second study uses a longitudinal neuroimaging protocol to examine changes in memory performance following exposure to either neutral or negative pictures. The third study, based on transaction theory, examines how regulatory processes between caregiver-child interactions during middle childhood relate to behavioral/academic problems in childhood and adolescence. The discussant, a NIDA-funded investigator with a strong publication record, will integrate the findings from the three studies and lay out a future research agenda for understanding the brain and behavior mechanisms underlying prenatal cocaine exposure.

Sub Unit

• Attention, Learning, Memory

Chair

• Maureen Black, University of Maryland at Baltimore

Discussant

• Gale A Richardson, University of Pittsburgh

Individual Presentations

• Prenatal Substance Exposure and Child Self-Regulation: Pathways to Risk and Protection - Presenting Author: Rina Das Eiden, SUNY - Buffalo; Stephanie Godleski, University at Buffalo; Pamela Schuetze, Buffalo State College; Craig R Colder, SUNY Buffalo

• Prenatal Cocaine Exposure (PCE) and Regulation of Arousal: Evidence from Neuroimaging - Presenting Author: Claire D Coles, Emory Univ Sch of Med; Mary Ellen E Lynch, Emory University; Xiaoping P Hu, Emory University; Zhihao Li, Emory University

• Caregiver-Child Interactions in Middle Childhood and Adolescent Functioning among Prenatally Drug Exposed and Non-Exposed Youth - Presenting Author: Stacy Buckingham-Howes, University of Maryland at Baltimore; Laura Scaletti, Univ of Maryland, Baltimore County; Donna Harrington, University of Maryland School of Social Work; Maureen Black, University of Maryland at Baltimore