Prenatal tobacco exposure on brain morphometry partially mediated poor cognitive performance in preadolescent children
Year: 2023
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Objectives: To evaluate whether prenatal tobacco exposure (PTE) is related to poorer cognitive performance, abnormal brain morphometry, and whether poor cognitive performance is mediated by PTE-related structural brain differences. Methods: ) scores in 9-to-10-year-old children with (n=620) and without PTE (n=10,989). We also evaluated whether PTE effects on brain morphometry mediated PTE effects on neurocognitive scores. Group effects were evaluated using Linear Mixed Models, covaried for socio-demographics and prenatal exposures to alcohol and/or marijuana, and corrected for multiple comparisons using the false-discovery rate (FDR). Results: Compared to unexposed children, those with PTE had poorer performance (all p-values <0.05) on executive function, working memory, episodic memory, reading decoding, crystallized intelligence, fluid intelligence and overall cognition. Exposed children also had thinner parahippocampal gyri, smaller surface areas in the posterior-cingulate and pericalcarine cortices; the lingual and inferior parietal gyri, and smaller thalamic volumes (all p-values <0.001). Furthermore, among children with PTE, girls had smaller surface areas in the superior-frontal (interaction-FDR-p=0.01), precuneus (interaction-FDR-p=0.03) and postcentral gyri (interaction-FDR-p=0.02), while boys had smaller putamen volumes (interaction-FDR-p=0.02). Smaller surface areas across regions of the frontal and parietal lobes, and lower thalamic volumes, partially mediated the associations between PTE and poorer neurocognitive scores (p-values <0.001). Conclusions: Our findings suggest PTE may lead to poorer cognitive performance and abnormal brain morphometry, with sex-specific effects in some brain regions, in pre-adolescent children. The poor cognition in children with PTE may result from the smaller areas and subcortical brain volumes.
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $1,695
Awards: G1020259976, G1058358382, G1436251778, G1510635755, G1569016918, G1586463187, G1742849658, G2715786902, G2735337927, G2998093352, G3305455594, G343603955, G3438786812, G3563224455, G3738900353, G4180929035, G4241744443, G469525291, G5002640097, G5081895789, G5976565686, G6983123888, G7271102572, G815084465, G8679417706, G8865478933, G9000008241, G9000034221, G9000042425, G9000046731, G9000061868, G9000108491, G9000113866, G9000202101, 9/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT U MICHIGAN, 17/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT UCLA, 8/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT CHLA, 6/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT OHSU, 21/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT WUSTL, 2/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT UMB, G923039674
OpenAlex ID: W4384206357