Ongoing research shows serious behavior problems for children exposed before birth to cocaine and crack. Some of these problems include violence, inability to understand cause and effect, lack of empathy, lack of conscience and remorse, self-control problems, inappropriate social behavior, difficulties with memory and learning, and problems making sense of their own experiences. More on this is available in the Articles page of this website, in the article The Truth About Crack/Cocaine and Children.
More research that directly deals with these problems can be found in Michelle Mentis and Kristine Lundgren's article "Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Cocaine and Associated Risk Factors on Language Development," which was printed in the December 1995 Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, Vol. 38, pp. 1303-1318. They found that in children with prenatal cocaine exposure, there were difficulties in comprehension of meaning of language, and an inability to associate ideas.
An interesting report in ScienceExpress (Nov. 7, 2002) by Ridderinkhof, deFlugt, Bramlage, Spaan, Elton, Snel, and Band at the University of Amsterdam, showed that alcohol consumption impaired subjects' own self-monitoring of their performance errors in various tasks. Since stimulant drugs like cocaine and crack may be more frequently used after drinking alcohol, their study shows that impairment of the anterior cingulate cortex by alcohol keeps that part of the brain from monitoring on-going processing in the cognitive system.
More research that directly deals with these problems can be found in Michelle Mentis and Kristine Lundgren's article "Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Cocaine and Associated Risk Factors on Language Development," which was printed in the December 1995 Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, Vol. 38, pp. 1303-1318. They found that in children with prenatal cocaine exposure, there were difficulties in comprehension of meaning of language, and an inability to associate ideas.
An interesting report in ScienceExpress (Nov. 7, 2002) by Ridderinkhof, deFlugt, Bramlage, Spaan, Elton, Snel, and Band at the University of Amsterdam, showed that alcohol consumption impaired subjects' own self-monitoring of their performance errors in various tasks. Since stimulant drugs like cocaine and crack may be more frequently used after drinking alcohol, their study shows that impairment of the anterior cingulate cortex by alcohol keeps that part of the brain from monitoring on-going processing in the cognitive system.