Science, Space and Technology News 2024
Research on preadolescents shows that early life exposure to extreme temperatures may alter brain development, especially in underprivileged areas. This significant finding highlights the need for targeted public health interventions to shield vulnerable children from climate impacts. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
This research has been led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health , a center supported by the “la Caixa” Foundation, and IDIBELL, in collaboration with the Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam and the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red : areas of Epidemiology Public Health , and Mental Health .
In this study, a team led by Guxens looked at the white matter structure in the brains of preadolescents to identify windows of susceptibility to cold and heat exposure in early life. The analysis included 2,681 children from the Generation R Study, a birth cohort in Rotterdam, who underwent magnetic resonance imaging between 9 and 12 years of age. The MRI protocol assessed brain connectivity by measuring the magnitude and direction of water diffusion within the brain’s white matter.
No association was found between temperature exposure in early life and fractional anisotropy at 9-12 years. The authors argue that a possible explanation is that these two metrics reflect different microstructural changes, and that mean diffusivity may be a more robust indicator of white matter maturation, compared to fractional anisotropy.A stratified analysis by socioeconomic conditions showed that children living in poorer neighborhoods were more vulnerable to cold and heat exposure.
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