Because infants reach functional capacity on EBC response by such an early age, infants at risk may be identified early in life. This assessment can also be used to help identify which nonsyndromal children are affected by the prenatal exposure.

"Our results show that there was a dose-response relation between alcohol exposure and FASD diagnosis and that a fundamental element of learning is affected by prenatal alcohol exposure," said Dr. Jacobson. The team now plans to extend the study to examine EBC in 8- to 11-year-old mixed-ancestry children in Cape Town to see whether the findings at 5 years of age are also apparent in older children. The researchers hope to revisit the 5-year-old group that has been studied at 8.5 years to examine EBC and, in addition, assess EBC in infants to see how early this deficit can be detected.

The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Minority Health, the Foundation for Alcohol Related Research, Cape Town, South Africa and the Joseph Young Sr. Fund from the State of Michigan.