Eye Movements May Spot Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorders

FRIDAY, Feb. 23 (HealthDay News) -- A simple test may be able to diagnose children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, Canadian researchers say.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are a wide array of adverse developmental outcomes in children caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. FASD is more widespread and less severe than fetal alcohol syndrome, but FASD is harder to diagnose because of a lack of objective diagnostic tools.

In a study published in the March issue ofAlcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, James Reynolds and Doug Munoz of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, collaborated with colleagues to find out if eye movement, oroculomotor, tasks could be used to assess FASD in children.

"Whereas oculomotor tasks have been used to assess brain function in a number of different clinical populations, this is the first such study to be carried out in FASD children," Reynolds said in a prepared statement.

The researchers compared the oculomotor performance of 10 children with FASD with 12 children without FASD.

All of the children were instructed to look toward or away from a stimulus that appeared in their peripheral visual field. The researchers measured the children's reaction times, direction errors and eye movement.

"We found that FASD children had much longer reaction times -- defined as the time required to initiate eye movement -- both towards and away from the peripheral visual target," said Reynolds.

Reynolds said the children with FASD made a greater number of directional errors when performing the eye movement tasks, compared to the children without FASD.

"In the absence of confirmed maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy," Reynolds said, "the diagnosis of FASD remains a significant clinical challenge."

Reynolds is pleased that he and his colleagues have discovered what seems to be a powerful and yet easy tool for assessing children with FASD.

The research team has acquired a mobile eye-tracker unit that is allowing them to move their research out of the laboratory and into communities, where they plan to apply their findings to other developmental disorders, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

More information

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has more about fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

SOURCE:Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, news release, Feb. 22, 2007