Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Department of Neurology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT 84132, USA.
Cereb Cortex. 2022 May 14;32(10):2156-2169. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhab346.
Air pollution is a major environmental threat to public health; we know little, however, about its effects on adolescent brain development. Exposure to air pollution co-occurs, and may interact, with social factors that also affect brain development, such as early life stress (ELS). Here, we show that severity of ELS and fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) are associated with volumetric changes in distinct brain regions, but also uncover regions in which ELS moderates the effects of PM2.5. We interviewed adolescents about ELS events, used satellite-derived estimates of ambient PM2.5 concentrations, and conducted longitudinal tensor-based morphometry to assess regional changes in brain volume over an approximately 2-year period (N = 115, ages 9-13 years at Time 1). For adolescents who had experienced less severe ELS, PM2.5 was associated with volumetric changes across several gray and white matter regions. Fewer effects of PM2.5 were observed for adolescents who had experienced more severe ELS, although occasionally they were in the opposite direction. This pattern of results suggests that for many brain regions, moderate to severe ELS largely constrains the effects of PM2.5 on structural development. Further theory and research is needed on the joint effects of ELS and air pollution on the brain.
空气污染是公共健康的主要环境威胁；然而，我们对其对青少年大脑发育的影响知之甚少。空气污染的暴露与也会影响大脑发育的社会因素共同发生，并可能相互作用，例如早期生活压力（ELS）。在这里，我们表明 ELS 的严重程度和细颗粒物空气污染（PM2.5）与不同大脑区域的体积变化有关，但也发现了 ELS 调节 PM2.5 影响的区域。我们采访了青少年关于 ELS 事件的情况，使用卫星衍生的环境 PM2.5 浓度估计值，并进行了纵向张量基形态测量，以评估大脑体积在大约 2 年期间的区域变化（N = 115，年龄在 9-13 岁之间）。对于经历过 ELS 严重程度较低的青少年来说，PM2.5 与几个灰质和白质区域的体积变化有关。对于经历过 ELS 严重程度较高的青少年来说，PM2.5 的影响较小，尽管有时它们的方向相反。这种结果模式表明，对于许多大脑区域来说，中等至严重的 ELS 在很大程度上限制了 PM2.5 对结构发育的影响。需要进一步研究 ELS 和空气污染对大脑的联合影响的理论和研究。
