Blake Gimbel, PhD, LP

FASD United is committed to recognizing children’s health in areas like disability and neurodiversity. The goal is to highlight the importance of early intervention, access to quality healthcare, safe environments, and opportunities for all children, so they can go on to lead fruitful lives. By focusing on these areas, we aim to ensure that every child has an equitable chance to thrive and reach their full potential.

To celebrate Children’s Awareness Month this June, we interviewed Dr. Blake Gimbel, a postdoctoral fellow in pediatric neuropsychology at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, who also works in their FASD Research Lab.

Clinically evaluating a wide range of children with complex medical and developmental conditions and supporting research on prenatal alcohol exposure is what Dr. Gimbel does best. “When I initially started out in my graduate training, I thought I wanted to work with adults…but I kind of fell into the child world—I was placed on a child assessment team, and I fell in love with working with kids and their families.” He appreciates the holistic understanding neuropsychology provides in terms of “how we understand the brain and how it functions within the context of an individual’s life history and their unique social, developmental, and medical background.” Dr. Gimbel values the uniqueness of pediatric neuropsychology. “We use data from a variety of sources, including information from caregivers and educators, medical records, and the child’s performance on tests measuring thinking skills like memory and attention to develop an understanding of the child, their unique strengths and challenges, and the factors that influence how their brain is functioning. Then we come up with a plan to help caregivers, teachers, medical providers, and other people figure out how to best support them.” This remains relevant for patients with prenatal exposure to alcohol and other substances, and this is where the University’s FASD Research Lab truly shines.

Headed by Dr. Jeffrey Wozniak, researchers at the FASD Research Lab use the latest brain imaging techniques and neurodevelopmental tests to study brain changes caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. “The University of Minnesota has one of the oldest clinical programs specializing in kids with FASD, and our FASD research team has been active for many years as well. We’re so fortunate to work with people from a number of different disciplines,” says Dr. Gimbel. For example, the team collaborates with pediatricians, geneticists, nutritionists, and neuroimaging specialists. The lab understands the value of giving FASD a seat at numerous tables. “Our goal for research is to understand and support brain development in kids and teens with FASD and learn how we can optimize brain development, even after prenatal alcohol exposure has taken place. It’s a really exciting time for our team to leverage all this interdisciplinary support and make some progress.”

Members of the lab attended the Research Society on Alcoholism Conference in Bellevue, WA from June 24-28th, 2023. Left to Right: Dr. Jeff Wozniak, Mary Anthony, Blake Gimbel, Abby Ernst, Dr. Judy Eckerle

Dr. Gimbel acknowledges that support is crucial. For example, in collaborating with nutrition experts, the lab is conducting an ongoing trial to evaluate choline (an essential nutrient) as an intervention for young children with prenatal alcohol exposure. The team has shown that choline supplementation early in life supports aspects of memory and thinking skills and that its benefits may become more noticeable with age. “We’re also doing work with older kids and teenagers by evaluating an intervention that combines brain training with transcranial direct-current stimulation, which is a mild electrical stimulation to the outer surface of the brain that may enhance the benefits of brain training.” The combination of brain training with stimulation is being studied to understand potential benefits for thinking skills like attention and impulse control. Dr. Gimbel and the lab are hopeful that interventions to support brain development will have important lasting benefits.

“This is a time that is really ripe for new findings and coming up with new ways for supporting the quality of life for people with an FASD,” Dr. Gimbel expresses excitingly. “Another turning point we’re seeing come to fruition is recognizing and honoring the perspectives and experiences of people living with FASD.” He references the 9th International Research Conference on Adolescents and Adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders held in Seattle, Washington this past April. A strong emphasis of the conference programming was focused on the living experiences of adults with FASD. “It’s important that we involve people with FASD, and those who support them, in all aspects of the research process.” Dr. Gimbel notes that doing this allows research to become more focused and address the priorities of the FASD community.

Speaking of exciting research, the FASD Lab is now actively looking for participants for their new study. The study’s focus is on evaluating a tool that could play a role in improving early access to screening and diagnostic services for individuals with FASD. “Many families experience significant barriers that come up when they’re trying to access services for an FASD evaluation. Things like stigma, a lack of trained providers, high costs, and long waitlists.” Dr. Gimbel acknowledges that this proves frustrating for families, and the study aims to address these problems and generate change. To emphasize this point, Dr. Gimbel references research from Svetlana Popova documenting long wait times and limited access to diagnostic services in Canada. He says that similar access issues are seen across the United States.

Dr. Gimbel’s team is testing BRAIN-online, a web-based neuropsychological assessment tool developed by Dr. Sarah Mattson and her team at the San Diego State University Center for Behavioral Teratology, which “looks at things like attention, memory, reaction time, etc., from home! It includes a parent questionnaire as well. We’re trying to see how this tool may be useful for identifying common developmental differences that can result from prenatal alcohol exposure.” Specifically, the team is interested in evaluating how the results of BRAIN-online compare to neuropsychological tests that children complete as part of their in-person diagnostic evaluation. As part of the study, caregivers provide the research team with a copy of their child’s recent or upcoming in-person neuropsychological evaluation report. The online test takes about 30-45 minutes to complete and study participants receive compensation for their time. The entire study is conducted online and there are no in-person study visits

Moving the FASD movement forward is the goal, and Dr. Gimbel and the FASD Research lab at the University of Minnesota are proud to be a part of this. “We’re trying to optimize brain development and identify brain-based differences in FASD.” Early intervention strategies mean better outcomes for children as they grow and change throughout the lifespan. FASD United is thankful for the work Dr. Gimbel and the FASD Research lab are doing, and we are happy to highlight their efforts during National Children’s Awareness Month as we help support children living with FASD.