1] The Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands [2] The Generation R Study Group, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
1] The Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands [2] Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Neuropsychopharmacology. 2014 Mar;39(4):792-800. doi: 10.1038/npp.2013.273. Epub 2013 Oct 7.
It is well known that smoking during pregnancy can affect offspring health. Prenatal tobacco exposure has been associated with negative behavioral and cognitive outcomes in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. These associations between prenatal tobacco exposure and psychopathology in offspring could possibly be explained by the influence of prenatal tobacco exposure on brain development. In this prospective study, we investigated the association between prenatal tobacco exposure, behavioral and emotional functioning and brain morphology in young children. On the basis of age and gender, we matched 113 children prenatally exposed to tobacco with 113 unexposed controls. These children were part of a population-based study in the Netherlands, the Generation R Study, and were followed from pregnancy onward. Behavioral and emotional functioning was assessed at age 6 with the Child Behavior Checklist. We assessed brain morphology using magnetic resonance imaging techniques in children aged 6-8 years. Children exposed to tobacco throughout pregnancy have smaller total brain volumes and smaller cortical gray matter volumes. Continued prenatal tobacco exposure was associated with cortical thinning, primarily in the superior frontal, superior parietal, and precentral cortices. These children also demonstrated increased scores of affective problems. In addition, thickness of the precentral and superior frontal cortices was associated with affective problems. Importantly, brain development in offspring of mothers who quit smoking during pregnancy resembled that of nonexposed controls (no smaller brain volumes and no thinning of the cortex). Our findings suggest an association between continued prenatal tobacco exposure and brain structure and function in school-aged children.
众所周知，孕期吸烟会影响后代健康。产前烟草暴露与儿童、青少年和青年期的负面行为和认知结果有关。这些产前烟草暴露与后代精神病理学之间的关联可能可以通过产前烟草暴露对大脑发育的影响来解释。在这项前瞻性研究中，我们调查了产前烟草暴露、行为和情绪功能与幼儿大脑形态之间的关系。基于年龄和性别，我们将 113 名产前接触烟草的儿童与 113 名未接触的对照儿童相匹配。这些儿童是荷兰基于人群的研究——“生育队列研究”的一部分，从怀孕开始一直随访到现在。在儿童 6 岁时，我们使用儿童行为检查表评估他们的行为和情绪功能。在 6-8 岁的儿童中，我们使用磁共振成像技术评估大脑形态。整个孕期暴露于烟草的儿童总脑容量和皮质灰质体积较小。持续的产前烟草暴露与皮质变薄有关，主要涉及额上回、顶上回和中央前回。这些儿童的情感问题评分也增加了。此外，中央前回和额上回的厚度与情感问题有关。重要的是，在怀孕期间戒烟的母亲的后代的大脑发育与未暴露的对照组相似（脑容量没有更小，皮质也没有变薄）。我们的研究结果表明，在学龄儿童中，持续的产前烟草暴露与大脑结构和功能之间存在关联。
