Prenatal alcohol exposure may be particularly destructive for neurotrophins, a family of peptides that influence the growth, development and functional plasticity of the fetal brain, according to a study published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Study co-author Robert F. Berman, a professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery and at the Center for Neuroscience, suggested that neurotrophin levels increased as compensation for damage to the developing brain from prenatal alcohol exposure.