Ambient fine particulate exposure and subcortical gray matter microarchitecture in 9- and 10-year-old children across the United States

Kirthana Sukumaran; Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez; Elisabeth Burnor; Katherine L Bottenhorn; Daniel A Hackman; Rob McConnell; Kiros Berhane; Joel Schwartz; Jiu-Chiuan Chen; Megan M Herting

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106087

Ambient fine particulate exposure and subcortical gray matter microarchitecture in 9- and 10-year-old children across the United States

iScience. 2023 Jan 31;26(3):106087. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106087. eCollection 2023 Mar 17.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90063, USA.
² Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA.
³ Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
⁴ Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
⁵ Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
⁶ Department of Neurology, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90063, USA.
⁷ Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA.

Abstract

Neuroimaging studies showing the adverse effects of air pollution on neurodevelopment have largely focused on smaller samples from limited geographical locations and have implemented univariant approaches to assess exposure and brain macrostructure. Herein, we implement restriction spectrum imaging and a multivariate approach to examine how one year of annual exposure to daily fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), daily nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), and 8-h maximum ozone (O₃) at ages 9-10 years relates to subcortical gray matter microarchitecture in a geographically diverse subsample of children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study^℠. Adjusting for confounders, we identified a latent variable representing 66% of the variance between one year of air pollution and subcortical gray matter microarchitecture. PM_2.5 was related to greater isotropic intracellular diffusion in the thalamus, brainstem, and accumbens, which related to cognition and internalizing symptoms. These findings may be indicative of previously identified air pollution-related risk for neuroinflammation and early neurodegenerative pathologies.

Keywords: Environmental health; Environmental science; Health sciences; Neuroscience; Public health.

Abstract

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