NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children exposed to alcohol in the womb have impaired eye blinks compared with their unexposed peers, researchers found in a study they conducted. Children exposed to alcohol before birth may develop fetal alcohol syndrome -- a collection of birth defects and developmental problems that can include delayed growth, significant learning disabilities and abnormal facial features. However, not all children with fetal alcohol syndrome are born with the distinctive facial anomalies of the condition. Writing in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, researchers say their findings indicate that deficits in so-called eye blink conditioning, or EBC, can identify children with probable fetal alcohol syndrome.
