Air pollution exposure during pregnancy may alter child's brain

Exposure to air pollution during fetal life may severely alter a child's brain structure and pose long-term effects, according to a  study published online Feb. 4 in Biological Psychiatry.

Researchers found that exposure affects the cerebral cortex, contributing to cognitive impairment during childhood and possibly later in life.

"Air pollution exposure during fetal life has been related to impaired child neurodevelopment but it is unclear if brain structural alterations underlie this association," wrote lead author Mònica Guxens, MD, PhD, from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health's Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology.

Guxens and colleagues used data from a population cohort from 2002 to 2006 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Study methods included calculating residential levels of air pollution during the entire fetal period by utilizing land-use regression models. Researchers then conducted structural neuroimaging and cognitive function exams on children when they reached the ages of 6 to 10 years old.

Children exposed to higher particulate matter levels of pollution during fetal life had thinner cortices in different regions of the brain, according to study results. Researchers also found the cerebral cortex of the precuneus region in the right hemisphere 0.045 millimeters thinner for each 5μg/m3 increase in pollution particles.

"The reduced cerebral cortex in precuneus and rostral middle frontal regions partially mediated the association between exposure to fine particles and impaired inhibitory control," the researchers concluded.