Traffic-Related Air Pollution Exposure To Infants and Young Children Linked To Structural Brain Changes
Source: Thailand Medical News Jan 25, 2020 4 years, 10 months, 4 weeks, 4 hours, 4 minutes ago
A recent study suggests that significant early
childhood exposure to
traffic-related air pollution (
TRAP) is associated with structural changes in the
brain at the age of 12.
Researchers from the Cincinnati
Children's Hospital Medical Center found that
children with higher levels of
TRAP exposure at birth had reductions at age 12 in gray matter volume and cortical thickness as compared to
children with lower levels of exposure.
These brain images of 12-year-old children show regions of the brain in red, orange and yellow that are
most affected by traffic related air pollution (TRAP). Those regions denote a reduction in cortical thickness
linked to elemental carbon attributed to traffic. Of these images, the darker the color, the stronger the effect.
Credit: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Dr Travis Beckwith, Ph.D., a research fellow at Cincinnati
Children's and lead author of the study told
Thailand Medical News, "The results of this study, though exploratory, suggest that where you live and the air you breathe can affect how your
brain develops. While the percentage of loss is far less than what might be seen in a degenerative disease state, this loss may be enough to influence the development of various physical and mental processes."
Typically, gray matter includes regions of the
brain involved in motor control as well as sensory perception, such as seeing and hearing. Cortical thickness reflects the outer gray matter depth. The study found that specific regions in the frontal and parietal lobes and the cerebellum were affected with decreases on the order of 3 to 4 percent.
Dr. Beckwith further added, "If early life
TRAP exposure irreversibly harms
brain development, structural consequences could persist regardless of the time point for a subsequent examination."
The medical researchers on the study, which is published online in
PLOS One, used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to obtain anatomical brain images from 147 12 year olds. These
children are a subset of the Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and
Air Pollution Study (CCAAPS), which recruited volunteers prior to the age of six months to examine early childhood exposure to
TRAP and health outcomes.
It was observed that the volunteers in the CCAAPS had either high or low levels of
TRAP exposure during their first year of life. The researchers estimated exposure using an air sampling network of 27 sites in the Cincinnati area, and 24/7 sampling was co
nducted simultaneously at four or five sites over different seasons. Participating
children and their caregivers completed clinic visits at ages 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 12.
Past studies of
TRAP suggest that it contributes to neurodegenerative diseases and neurodevelopmental disorders. This work supports that
TRAP changes
brain structure early in life.
Reference: Reduced gray matter volume and cortical thickness associated with traffic-related air pollution in a longitudinally studied pediatric cohort, Travis Beckwith , Kim Cecil, Mekibib Altaye, Rachel Severs, Christopher Wolfe, Zana Percy, Thomas Maloney, Kimberly Yolton, Grace LeMasters, Kelly Brunst, Patrick Ryan,PLOS ONE, Published: January 24, 2020 , https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228092
