FYI: For those of you selected to present orally, you should prepare PPT slides for a 15 minute talk. We have allotted 3 minutes after each talk for questions and comments. There will be a training director moderating each session. Email your slides to Jill (vanderv@mail.sdsu.edu) by October 15th, 2013. We will be using a PC laptop for the workshop and you can view your slides at the registration / information desk when you check-in Friday if you want to verify they were received correctly.

For those of you who will be presenting your data during the poster session, the determined poster size for the workshop is 42″ tall x 56″ wide.

Your audience will include the training director(s) (or representative faculty member) from each of the 26 nationwide NIAAA T32 training programs, trainees (pre and postdoctoral) also presenting abstracts (oral or poster) from these programs, local San Diego faculty & trainees and NIAAA staff.

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The deadline for abstract submissions is May 1, 2013. Abstracts can be submitted online here.
The Program Committee will select abstracts for oral as well as poster presentations. The submission of abstracts will be limited to one per first/presenting trainee author. Abstract acceptance notifications will be emailed by August 15, 2013.

Please follow the structured SAMPLE ABSTRACT format below. Tables, charts and graphs are not allowed. Be sure to follow all instructions. Abstracts should be well written, contain alcohol research data and include a statement about the conclusion reached.

 ABSTRACT FORMAT:

• TITLE: Type the title in ALL CAPS and keep it BRIEF – 150 character count limit, including spaces. Use standard abbreviations only.

• AUTHOR(S) / INSTITUTION(S): Type the authors’ names in upper and lower case; use last names (1st) and first/middle name initals (2nd) only. List the name and location, including city, state and zip code of the institution where the work was done. Character count limit for authors = 200 and affiliations = 200.

• BODY OF THE ABSTRACT: 2,500 character count limit, includes spaces (excluding title, authors, and affiliations). Use a structured format (BACKGROUND, METHODS, RESULTS, CONCLUSIONS):

a. state purpose of the study;
b. give a brief statement of methods used, if pertinent;
c. summarize the results obtained; and
d. include a statement about the conclusion reached; it is not acceptable to write, “results will be discussed.”

SAMPLE ABSTRACT

EFFECT OF PREDICTIVE CUING ON RESPONSE INHIBITION IN CHILDREN WITH HEAVY PRENATAL ALCOHOL EXPOSURE.
O’Brien JW, Norman AL, Fryer SL, Tapert SF, Paulus MP, Jones KL, Riley EP, Mattson SN.
Department of Psychology, Center for Behavioral Teratology, San Diego State University, San Diego, California, 92120.

BACKGROUND: Heavy prenatal exposure to alcohol leads to widespread cognitive deficits, including problems with attention and response inhibition. This study examined blood oxygen level-dependent response in children with and without histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure during a task of response inhibition consisting of cued and noncued trials.
METHODS: Children and adolescents (ages 8 to 18 years) with (alcohol-exposed [AE] = 20) and without (control [CON] = 15) histories of heavy prenatal exposure to alcohol underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a go/no-go task. Unbeknownst to subjects, a predictive cue preceded the no-go stimulus in 87% of trials.
RESULTS: Groups were matched on demographic variables and did not differ on most measures of task performance. However, following cued stimuli, the AE group demonstrated a lower hit rate to go stimuli and more conservative response bias than the CON group. AE participants demonstrated more activation during no-go trials (inhibition) relative to go trials in the left precuneus, cingulate gyrus, anterior cingulate, and right medial frontal gyrus. During cue-dependent response inhibition, the AE group demonstrated less activation in the left precentral and postcentral gyrus compared to the CON group.
CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with previous studies of response inhibition, the AE group demonstrated greater frontal and parietal activation when attempting to inhibit prepotent responses than the CON group, despite similar rates of commission errors. This study further demonstrated that the AE group had impaired behavioral performance on cued trials and demonstrated less activation in precentral and postcentral gyri relative to the CON group on these trials. This investigation provides evidence of impaired behavioral and neural processing of sequential information in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, which can help improve inhibition in typical populations.

Research supported by NIAAA grants R01 AA010417, R01 AA019605, U01 AA014834, and U24 AA014811.