Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2019 Sep;60(9):1010-1020. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13040. Epub 2019 Mar 18.
The prenatal period is a period of vulnerability during which neurotoxic exposures exert persistent changes in brain development and behavior. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), used as flame retardants in commercial products, are known to be developmental neurotoxicants. PBDEs were phased out of use in the United States a decade ago, but exposure remains widespread due to their release from existing products and biopersistence. Despite consistent animal and epidemiological evidence of developmental neurotoxicity, the neural substrates linking prenatal PBDE serum concentrations to impaired neurodevelopment are poorly understood.
In the present study, we used resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine associations between prenatal PBDE concentrations measured in maternal serum and intrinsic functional network organization (i.e., global and local efficiency; estimated using a graph-theoretical approach) in 5-year-old children (n = 34). We explored whether PBDE serum concentrations were associated with executive functioning (EF) assessed using a parent-report questionnaire (BRIEF-P) (n = 106) and whether changes in intrinsic functional network organization linked the association between prenatal PBDE serum concentrations and EF problems.
Children with higher prenatal PBDE serum concentrations showed: (a) increased global efficiency of brain areas involved in visual attention (e.g., inferior occipital gyrus) (β's = .01, FDR-corrected p's ≤ .05); (b) more reported EF problems (β's = .001, FDR-corrected p's ≤ .05). Higher global efficiency of brain areas involved in visual attention was associated with more EF problems (β's = .01, FDR-corrected p's < .05).
Intrinsic functional network organization of visual attention brain areas linked prenatal PBDE concentrations to EF problems in childhood. Visual attention may contribute to the development of higher-order cognitive functions, such as EF, which could be explored in future studies.
产前阶段是一个易受伤害的时期，在此期间，神经毒性暴露会对大脑发育和行为产生持久的变化。多溴联苯醚 (PBDEs) 作为商业产品中的阻燃剂，已知具有发育神经毒性。十年前，美国已逐步淘汰 PBDEs 的使用，但由于现有产品的释放和生物持久性，其仍广泛存在。尽管有一致的动物和流行病学证据表明其具有发育神经毒性，但将产前 PBDE 血清浓度与神经发育受损联系起来的神经基础仍知之甚少。
在本研究中，我们使用静息态功能磁共振成像 (fMRI) 来研究母亲血清中测量的产前 PBDE 浓度与 5 岁儿童内在功能网络组织（即全局和局部效率；使用图论方法估计）之间的关联 (n = 34)。我们探讨了 PBDE 血清浓度是否与使用父母报告问卷 (BRIEF-P) 评估的执行功能 (EF) 相关 (n = 106)，以及内在功能网络组织的变化是否将 PBDE 血清浓度与 EF 问题之间的关联联系起来。
具有较高产前 PBDE 血清浓度的儿童表现出：(a) 参与视觉注意力的脑区全局效率增加（例如，下顶叶回）（β's =.01，经 FDR 校正的 p 值 ≤.05）；(b) 更多报告的 EF 问题（β's =.001，经 FDR 校正的 p 值 ≤.05）。参与视觉注意力的脑区的全局效率越高，EF 问题越多（β's =.01，经 FDR 校正的 p 值 <.05）。
视觉注意力脑区的内在功能网络组织将产前 PBDE 浓度与儿童时期的 EF 问题联系起来。视觉注意力可能有助于更高阶认知功能（如 EF）的发展，这可以在未来的研究中进行探索。
