Mothers' alcohol consumption before and during pregnancy is linked to changes in children's face shapes

 Researchers have used artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning technology to find a link between alterations in the shape of children's faces and the amount of alcohol their mothers drank, both before becoming pregnant and during pregnancy.The study, which is published today (Thursday) in Human Reproduction, one of the world's leading reproductive medicine journals, is the first to detect this association in the children of mothers who drank alcohol up to three months before becoming pregnant but stopped during pregnancy. In addition, it found the association with altered face shape existed even if mothers drank less than 12g of alcohol a week -- the equivalent of a small, 175 ml glass of wine or 330ml of beer.

The finding is important because the shape of children's faces can be an indication of health and developmental problems.

Gennady Roshchupkin, assistant professor and leader of the computational population biology group at Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, who led the study, said: "I would call the face a 'health mirror' as it reflects the overall health of a child. A child's exposure to alcohol before birth can have significant adverse effects on its health development and, if a mother regularly drinks a large amount, this can result in foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, FASD, which is reflected in children's faces."

FASD is defined as a combination of growth retardation, neurological impairment and recognisably abnormal facial development. Symptoms include cognitive impairment, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning difficulties, memory problems, behavioural problems, and speech and language delays. FASD is already known to be caused by a mother's drinking during pregnancy, particularly heavy drinking. However, until now, little was known about the effect of low alcohol consumption on children's facial development and, therefore, their health. This is also the first study to examine the question in children from multiple ethnic backgrounds.

The researchers used AI and deep learning to analyse three-dimensional images of children taken at the ages of nine (3149 children) and 13 (2477 children). The children were part of the Generation R Study in The Netherlands, an ongoing population-based study of pregnant women and their children from foetal life onwards. The children in this analysis were born between April 2009 and January 2006.

"The face is a complex shape and analysing it is a challenging task. 3D imaging helps a lot, but requires more advanced algorithms to do this," said Prof. Roshchupkin. "For this task, we developed an AI-based algorithm, which takes high-resolution 3D images of the face and produce 200 unique measurements or 'traits'. We analysed these to search for associations with prenatal alcohol exposure and we developed heat maps to display the particular facial features associated with the mothers' alcohol consumption."

Source: ScienceDaily