Inhibition response in children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: An Event-Related Potential Study using an emotional GO/NO-GO task

Abstract

Among the main cognitive deficits observed in patients with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), high levels of hyperactivity and impulsivity are frequently reported. Previous studies have linked the modulation of certain electrophysiological mechanisms, such as the N2 and P3 components, to impulsive behaviours in FASD. Nevertheless, the influence of emotional context on the modulation of these neural indices remains unexplored. Therefore, the present investigation aimed to characterize the temporal dynamics of inhibition towards emotional information in children with FASD at neural levels. Thirty-four children (18 FASD patients’ and 16 healthy control (HC) subjects) performed an emotional GO/NO-GO task. Three types of emotional pictures (i.e., positive, negative and neutral) were used as emotional contexts. Reaction time (RT) and accuracy measures (omissions and commissions) in the experimental task were collected as behavioural outcomes. Behaviourally, FASD patients showed higher commissions in all contexts (i.e., positive, negative and neutral) compared to HC group. Moreover, in the FASD group all contexts elicited both lower amplitude and shorter latency of the N2 component compared to HC. For the P3 component, FASD patients showed lower amplitudes in positive contexts compared negative and neutral contexts. The presence of impulsivity in children with FASD was reflected in deficits in the allocation of attentional resources for processing emotional information. The current results suggest that impulsivity in FASD may be associated with alterations in the inhibition of responses to positive emotional contexts. This work was supported by grants A602 from the Cátedra VIU-NED de Neurociencia global y cambio social Fundación NED-Universidad Internacional of the Valencia.