ADULT ASSESSMENT PROJECT

Project Description:

This project is the adult follow-up phase of a study that began in the early 1980’s. It is a collaboration between researchers at the Emory School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Biomedical Engineering. The purpose of the study is to assess long-term effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on development. Mothers of these participants were recruited prenatally. The sample includes participants whose mothers used alcohol during pregnancy as well as participants whose mothers did not. Subsets of this sample have been evaluated in infancy, childhood, and adolescence. The adolescent follow-up was know as the Emory Teen Assessment Project. This study is unusual because the participants have been followed since birth, the sample includes both exposed and non-exposed individuals, and the adult assessment will include brain imaging.

For this phase of the study, young adults who participated previously are being invited to our lab for an evaluation and interview session. Tests of thinking and attention, a medical evaluation, and interviews about current life situation, behavior and adjustment will be administered. Some of the participants also will participate in a brain imaging session at Emory University Hospital. Pictures of how the brain works will be taken at this session. This study should help scientists understand the long term effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on many aspects of development and on brain functioning.

Funding:

This project is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), one of the National Institutes of Health.

Project Staff:

Principal Investigator: Claire D. Coles, Ph.D.
Co-Principal Investigator: Xiaoping P. Hu, Ph.D.
Co-Investigators: Mary Ellen Lynch, Ph.D., Kathleen Platzman, Ph.D., Julie Kable, Ph.D., Felicia Goldstein, Ph.D. (Department of Neurology)
Outreach Staff: Sharron Paige-Whitaker, Chris Foster, Tuesday Means
Medical Staff: Susan Schmieding, R.N. B.S.N, Michael Marcin, M.D.
Testing Staff: Christy Hall, Ph.D., Mark Register, Ph.D.
Imaging Staff: Dmitriy Niyazov, M.D., Scott Peltier, Ph.D., Stephen LaConte, Ph.D.