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. 2017;42(6):369-386.
doi: 10.1080/87565641.2017.1362698. Epub 2017 Sep 26.

Prenatal Cocaine Exposure Impacts Language and Reading Into Late Adolescence: Behavioral and ERP Evidence

Nicole Landi  1   2 , Trey Avery  2 , Michael J Crowley  3 , Jia Wu  3 , Linda Mayes  3
Affiliations

Prenatal Cocaine Exposure Impacts Language and Reading Into Late Adolescence: Behavioral and ERP Evidence

Nicole Landi et al. Dev Neuropsychol. 2017.

Abstract

Extant research documents impaired language among children with prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) relative to nondrug exposed (NDE) children, suggesting that cocaine alters development of neurobiological systems that support language. The current study examines behavioral and neural (electrophysiological) indices of language function in older adolescents. Specifically, we compare performance of PCE (N = 59) and NDE (N = 51) adolescents on a battery of cognitive and linguistic assessments that tap word reading, reading comprehension, semantic and grammatical processing, and IQ. In addition, we examine event related potential (ERP) responses in in a subset of these children across three experimental tasks that examine word level phonological processing (rhyme priming), word level semantic processing (semantic priming), and sentence level semantic processing (semantic anomaly). Findings reveal deficits across a number of reading and language assessments, after controlling for socioeconomic status and exposure to other substances. Additionally, ERP data reveal atypical orthography to phonology mapping (reduced N1/P2 response) and atypical rhyme and semantic processing (N400 response). These findings suggest that PCE continues to impact language and reading skills into the late teenage years.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Electrode montages used for analysis of ERP components for the word priming experiments (green) and sentence anomaly experiment (blue).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Rhyme Prime Task: ERP waveforms elicited by the rhyme primed (blue) and unprimed (red) targets.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Semantic Priming Task: ERP waveforms elicited by semantically primed (blue) and unprimed (red) targets.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Semantic Anomaly Task: ERP waveforms elicited by semantically congruent (blue) and semantically anomalous (red) targets.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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