Bailey Beth A, Osborne Jahla B
College of Medicine, Central Michigan University, Mt Pleasant, MI, United States.
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.
Front Pediatr. 2023 Mar 2;11:1113047. doi: 10.3389/fped.2023.1113047. eCollection 2023.
Research has identified a link between prenatal marijuana exposure and multiple outcomes in children, including cognitive development. Several studies have found specific differences in sensory processing and attention, with visual perception especially impacted in school age children. The current study explored whether this effect is evident at an earlier age, and thus our goal was to investigate the relationship between marijuana exposure and sensory processing capabilities in toddlers. We hypothesized that marijuana exposure throughout pregnancy would specifically predict visual sensory hyperactivity in children as young as 15 months of age.
Participants were 225 15-month-old children whose mothers were recruited during pregnancy. Substance exposure was prospectively collected and biochemically verified, with marijuana coded as no exposure, 1st trimester exposure only, or exposure throughout pregnancy. The Infant Toddler Sensory Profile evaluated 5 domains of sensory processing (visual, auditory, tactile, vestibular, oral).
Prenatal marijuana exposure throughout pregnancy, but not when limited to the first trimester, predicted a two-fold increased likelihood of scoring in a range indicating high levels of seeking out and potentially over-attending to visual stimulation after controlling for potentially confounding factors including other prenatal exposures. Marijuana exposure was not significantly related to other processing domains.
Results indicate that links previously identified between prenatal marijuana exposure and visual function and attention may already be evident at 15 months of age, and also suggest an impact related to continuous/later pregnancy exposure. Our findings, as well as those from previous studies, all suggest visual processing differences for exposed children, differences that may predict emerging issues with visual attention and habituation. As legalization of marijuana continues to increase, further research is clearly needed to examine specific teratologic effects associated with use during pregnancy.
研究已确定产前接触大麻与儿童的多种后果之间存在联系，包括认知发展。多项研究发现了感觉处理和注意力方面的特定差异，其中视觉感知在学龄儿童中受到的影响尤为明显。本研究探讨了这种影响在更早的年龄是否明显，因此我们的目标是研究大麻暴露与幼儿感觉处理能力之间的关系。我们假设整个孕期接触大麻会特别预示15个月大儿童的视觉感觉多动。
参与者为225名15个月大的儿童，他们的母亲在孕期被招募。前瞻性收集物质暴露情况并进行生化验证，大麻暴露分为无暴露、仅孕早期暴露或整个孕期暴露。婴幼儿感觉概况评估了感觉处理的5个领域（视觉、听觉、触觉、前庭、口腔）。
在控制了包括其他产前暴露在内的潜在混杂因素后，整个孕期而非仅限于孕早期的产前大麻暴露预示得分处于表明高水平寻求并可能过度关注视觉刺激范围的可能性增加了两倍。大麻暴露与其他处理领域无显著相关。
结果表明，先前确定的产前大麻暴露与视觉功能和注意力之间的联系在15个月大时可能已经很明显，也表明与持续/后期孕期暴露有关。我们的研究结果以及先前研究的结果均表明，暴露儿童存在视觉处理差异，这些差异可能预示着视觉注意力和习惯化方面出现的问题。随着大麻合法化程度不断提高，显然需要进一步研究来检查与孕期使用相关的具体致畸作用。
