Finally, Sheinkopf and colleagues recently investigated fMRI brain activation patterns in 12 prenatally cocaine-exposed and 12 non-exposed comparison school-aged children (8-9 years of age) using a variant of the Go/No Go response inhibition task43. While no group differences were noted in task performance, the exposed children showed greater BOLD signal activation in frontal and striatal regions, contrasting with greater activation among non-exposed children in the occipital cortex and fusiform gyrus, suggesting functional differences in neural systems underlying cognitive control and attention.
