The second study, done by the same group97, assessed volumetric differences in multiple brain regions among METH-exposed children compared to non METH-exposed children. Similar to their MRS study, 6/13 METH-exposed children had prenatal tobacco exposure and 2/13 had prenatal alcohol exposure; among the control group 1/15 children had prenatal tobacco exposure and none were reportedly alcohol-exposed. Correcting for multiple comparisons, significant volumetric reductions were noted in several subcortical areas in the METH-exposed group (globus pallidus, putamen and hippocampus). Although no interaction effects were found between METH exposure status, brain volume, and neurocognitive performance, when both METH-exposed and -unexposed groups were combined, volumetric decreases in these three structures were associated with poorer performance on sustained attention (Test of Variable Attention) and delayed verbal memory (California Verbal Learning Test for Children) tasks.
