Adverse effects of prenatal exposure to neurotoxins, including cocaine, alcohol, marijuana, and lead, are well documented and range from initial growth deficits to later cognitive and behavioral problems. Exciting new research has found that there are gender differences in these sequelae resulting in different outcomes for males and females. Namely, exposed males appear to be more vulnerable and experience greater deficits than exposed females.
Cutting-edge and thought-provoking, this volume explores a full range of topics related to gender differences in:
- neurological effects and sensory motor delays;
- brain metabolism and gene expression;
- growth velocity, organ maturity, cerebral vasoconstriction, oxidative stress, and sex hormone levels; and
- cognitive, behavioral, neurochemical, and emotional effects
Bringing together an outstanding group of animal and human researchers, this book aims to contribute to our knowledge of central nervous system development to better inform intervention efforts that target the most vulnerable groups. This timely volume reflects our increasingly sophisticated and refined understanding of this societal problem.
Contributors
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Michael Lewis and Lisa Kestler
I. Cocaine
- Gender-Dependent Effects of Prenatal Cocaine Exposure
Lisa Kestler, David S. Bennett, Dennis P. Carmody, and Michael Lewis - Prenatal Cocaine Exposure and Age 7 Behavior: The Roles of Gender, Quantity, and Duration of Exposure
Virginia Delaney-Black, Chandice Covington, Lisa M. Chiodo, John H. Hannigan, Mark K. Greenwald, James Janisse, Grace Patterson, Joel Ager, Ekemini Akan, Linda Lewandowski, Steven J. Ondersma, Ty Partridge and Robert J. Sokol - Sex Differences in the Effects of Cocaine Exposure on Dopaminergic Systems During Brain Development
Diana Dow-Edwards and Annelyn Torres-Reveron - Gender Influences on the Cognitive and Emotional Effects of Prenatal Cocaine Exposure: Insights From an Animal Model
Stephane A. Beaudin, Mathew H. Gendle and Barbara J. Strupp
II. Tobacco and Marijuana
- Examination of Gender Differences in Effects of Tobacco Exposure
Claire D. Coles, Julie A. Kable, and Mary Ellen Lynch - Sex-Specific Effects of Prenatal Marijuana Exposure on Neurodevelopment and Behavior
Jennifer A. Willford, Gale A. Richardson, and Nancy L. Day
III. Alcohol
- Sex Differences in Prenatal Alcohol Abuse in Humans
Ann P. Streissguth - Sex Differences in the Teratogenic Effects of Alcohol: Findings From Animal Models
Nicha K. H. Otero and Sandra J. Kelly
IV. Environmental Toxins
- Gender (Sex) Differences in Response to Prenatal Lead Exposure
Nancy L. Fiedler - The Sexually Dimorphic Nature of the Effects of Polychlorinated Biphenyls on the Central Nervous System in the Developing Animal
Elizabeth M. Sajdel-Sulkowska and Noriyuki Koibuchi - Sexual Differentiation of the Human Brain: Hormonal Control and Effects of Endocrine Disruptors
Erica L. T. van den Akker and Nynke Weisglas-Kuperus
Index
About the Editors
Michael Lewis, PhD, has published more than 300 articles in scientific journals, and he has written or edited more than 35 books, including Social Cognition and the Acquisition of Self (1979); Children's Emotions and Moods: Developmental Theory and Measurement (1983); Shame, The Exposed Self (1992); and Altering Fate: Why the Past Does Not Predict the Future (1997). He edited the Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology (2nd ed., 2001), and the Handbook of Emotions (3rd ed., 2009). He recently won the Urie Bronfenbrenner Award from APA for Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology in the Service of Science and Society.
Lisa Kestler, PhD, is a senior clinician at MedAvante, Inc., a psychiatric research company in Hamilton, New Jersey. At the Institute for the Study of Child Development, Dr. Kestler served as an investigator on the National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded study on the Developmental Effects of Prenatal Cocaine Exposure, a prospective study spanning the lives of children born to drug-abusing mothers from infancy through adolescence. Drawing on her training in developmental psychopathology at Emory University, Dr. Kestler has been interested in understanding the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development of children following exposure to intrauterine pathogens as well as postnatal stressors, environmental risk, and parental psychopathology.
;){kind=link}