A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Prenatal and early-life environmental factors, family demographics and cortical brain anatomy in 5-year-olds: an MRI study from FinnBrain Birth Cohort
Authors: Silver Eero, Pulli Elmo P, Kataja Eeva-Leena, Kumpulainen Venla, Copeland Anni, Saukko Ekaterina, Saunavaara Jani, Merisaari Harri, Lähdesmäki Tuire, Parkkola Riitta, Karlsson Linnea, Karlsson Hasse, Tuulari Jetro J
Publisher: SPRINGER
Publication year: 2022
Journal: Brain Imaging and Behavior
Journal name in source: BRAIN IMAGING AND BEHAVIOR
Journal acronym: BRAIN IMAGING BEHAV
Volume: 16
First page : 2097
Last page: 2109
Number of pages: 13
ISSN: 1931-7557
eISSN: 1931-7565
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-022-00679-w(external)
Web address : https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11682-022-00679-w(external)
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/175948994(external)
The human brain develops dynamically during early childhood, when the child is sensitive to both genetic programming and extrinsic exposures. Recent studies have found links between prenatal and early life environmental factors, family demographics and the cortical brain morphology in newborns measured by surface area, volume and thickness. Here in this magnetic resonance imaging study, we evaluated whether a similar set of variables associates with cortical surface area and volumes measured in a sample of 170 healthy 5-year-olds from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. We found that child sex, maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index, 5 min Apgar score, neonatal intensive care unit admission and maternal smoking during pregnancy associated with surface areas. Furthermore, child sex, maternal age and maternal level of education associated with brain volumes. Expectedly, many variables deemed important for neonatal brain anatomy (such as birth weight and gestational age at birth) in earlier studies did not associate with brain metrics in our study group of 5-year-olds, which implies that their effects on brain anatomy are age-specific. Future research may benefit from including pre- and perinatal covariates in the analyses when such data are available. Finally, we provide evidence for right lateralization for surface area and volumes, except for the temporal lobes which were left lateralized. These subtle differences between hemispheres are variable across individuals and may be interesting brain metrics in future studies.
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