An extensive literature now exists showing that prenatal exposure to alcohol and other drugs is associated with regional abnormalities of brain volume (Riley and McGee, 2005; Moore et al., 2014). The contribution of familial risk factors to these abnormalities often is unknown because of limitations regarding the familial risk status of the mothers (Riley and McGee, 2005). Children with alcohol dependent mothers are often raised in foster families so that at the time of recruitment reliable information about the mother and other family members’ drinking, smoking, and drug use is not attainable (O'Brien and Hill, 2015). Similarly, studies contrasting family history positive and negative offspring frequently do not have data concerning prenatal exposures. As a result, few studies control for prenatal exposure to alcohol, drugs and cigarettes when looking at familial risk effects on brain structural and functional characteristics (Cservenka, 2016).
