To study the effects of alcohol on embryonic neurological development, some researchers utilize cell cultures derived from neuroepithelium, whole brain extracts, or established neuronal or glial cell lines with subsequent in vitro alcohol exposure. This reductionist approach answers highly specific questions but does not fully translate to in vivo explanations for the teratogenic effects of alcohol. Additionally, the amount of alcohol used to induce alterations, particularly in genetic programs, is relatively high, ranging from 60 to 400 mM. Further, in vitro alcohol exposures do not fully model what occurs in vivo during gestation, as the importance of the maternal environment, including the placenta, in the protection of the fetus from alcohol is ignored. However, it should be noted that studies using an in vitro application of ethanol have laid the foundation for this area of research, demonstrating that alcohol alters epigenetic programs (Veazey, Carnahan, Muller, Miranda, & Golding, 2013; Zhou et al., 2011), cell cycle dynamics (Hicks, Middleton, & Miller), cell fate (Kim et al., 2010; Miranda, Santillano, Camarillo, & Dohrman, 2008), Wnt signaling and differentiation (Vangipuram & Lyman, 2012),
