Neuroscience For Dummies
Explore Book- Fetal alcohol syndrome: Fetal alcohol syndrome develops when the mother drinks excessive alcohol during pregnancy. Alcohol crosses the placental barrier and can damage neurons and brain structures leading to cognitive and functional disabilities such as attention and memory deficits, impulsive behavior, and stunted overall growth. Fetal alcohol exposure is a significant cause of intellectual disability, estimated to occur in about 1 per 1,000 live births. It is associated with distinctive facial features, including a short nose, thin upper lip, and skin folds at the corner of the eyes.
- Maternal stress: If a mother is highly or chronically stressed while pregnant, her child is more likely to have emotional or cognitive problems, such as attention deficits, hyperactivity, anxiety, and language delay. The fetal environment can be altered when maternal stress changes the mother's hormone profile. It is thought that this occurs through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis via the secretion of cortisol, a stress hormone that has deleterious effects on the developing nervous system. More recently, it has been shown that epigenetic changes in DNA expression can affect germ cells and, therefore, be inherited.
- Post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD): PTSD is a severe anxiety disorder that develops after psychological trauma, such as the threat of death, as in war, or a significant threat to one's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity that overwhelms the ability to cope, as in sexual assault. Traumatic events cause an overactive adrenaline response, which persists after the event, making an individual hyper-responsive to future fearful situations.