The purpose of this study was to examine the hypothesis that child sex moderates the association between prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) and autonomic functioning as well as to examine the role that caregiving environmental risk played in sex differences in autonomic functioning among exposed children. Measures of the parasympathetic nervous system (indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]) and the sympathetic nervous system (indexed by skin conductance level [SCL]) were obtained from 146 (75 cocaine-exposed, 38 male; and 71 nonexposed, 36 male) children during baseline and a task designed to elicit negative affect (NA). We also examined the role of caregiving environmental risk as a moderator of the association between PCE and autonomic functioning separately for boys and girls. PCE boys had a significantly higher baseline RSA and lower baseline SCL than PCE girls or nonexposed children. Environmental risk also moderated the association between PCE and baseline RSA for boys, but not girls, such that boys with PCE and high environmental risk had the highest baseline RSA. These findings indicate that exposed boys had significantly lower levels of sympathetic activation while at rest. However, for autonomic reactivity, the exposed girls had a larger change in both RSA and SCL relative to nonexposed girls while exposed boys had significantly smaller increases in SCL during environmental challenge. Finally, girls with both PCE and high environmental risk had the highest levels of parasympathetic reactivity during challenge. These results underscore the importance of examining sex differences and considering comorbid environmental risk factors when examining developmental outcomes in cocaine-exposed children and highlight the complexity involved with understanding individual differences in cocaine-exposed populations.

中文翻译：

---

接触可卡因的幼儿园适龄儿童的自主神经功能：检查儿童性别和作为潜在调节因素的照料环境风险。

本研究的目的是检验儿童性别调节产前可卡因暴露 (PCE) 与自主神经功能之间关联的假设，并检验照料环境风险在暴露儿童自主神经功能的性别差异中所起的作用。副交感神经系统（以呼吸性窦性心律失常 [RSA] 为指标）和交感神经系统（以皮肤电导水平 [SCL] 为指标）的测量数据来自 146 名（75 名接触可卡因，38 名男性；71 名未接触可卡因，36 名男性） ) 基线期间的儿童和旨在引发负面影响 (NA) 的任务。我们还分别检查了照料环境风险作为 PCE 与男孩和女孩自主神经功能之间关联的调节因素的作用。PCE 男孩的基线 RSA 和基线 SCL 显着高于 PCE 女孩或未暴露的儿童。环境风险也缓和了男孩的 PCE 和基线 RSA 之间的关联，但不是女孩，因此具有 PCE 和高环境风险的男孩具有最高的基线 RSA。这些发现表明，暴露的男孩在休息时的交感神经激活水平显着降低。然而，对于自主神经反应，暴露的女孩相对于未暴露的女孩的 RSA 和 SCL 变化更大，而暴露的男孩在环境挑战期间的 SCL 增加显着较小。最后，同时具有 PCE 和高环境风险的女孩在挑战期间的副交感神经反应水平最高。