Exposure to DDT and DDE and functional neuroimaging in adolescents from the CHAMACOS cohort

Epidemiological studies suggest that exposure to p,p’-dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (p,p’-DDT) is associated with poorer cognitive function in children and adolescents, but the neural mechanisms underlying this association remain unclear. We investigated associations of prenatal and childhood ex...

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Published inEnvironmental research Vol. 212; no. Pt C; p. 113461
Main Authors Binter, Anne-Claire, Mora, Ana M., Baker, Joseph M., Bruno, Jennifer L., Kogut, Katherine, Rauch, Stephen, Reiss, Allan L., Eskenazi, Brenda, Sagiv, Sharon K.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Netherlands Elsevier Inc 01.09.2022
Elsevier
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Summary:Epidemiological studies suggest that exposure to p,p’-dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (p,p’-DDT) is associated with poorer cognitive function in children and adolescents, but the neural mechanisms underlying this association remain unclear. We investigated associations of prenatal and childhood exposure to p,p’-DDT and its metabolite p,p’-dichloro-diphenyl-dichloroethylene (p,p’-DDE) with cortical activation in adolescents using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). We administered fNIRS to 95 adolescents from the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) aged 15–17 years. We assessed cortical activity in the frontal, temporal, and parietal brain regions while participants completed tasks of executive function, language comprehension, and social cognition. We measured serum p,p’-DDT and -DDE concentrations at age 9 years and then estimated exposure-outcome associations using linear regression models adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics. In secondary analyses, we back-extrapolated prenatal concentrations using prediction models and examined their association with cortical activation. Median (P25–P75) p,p’-DDT and -DDE concentrations in childhood were 1.4 (1–2.3) and 141.5 (75.0–281.3) ng/g lipid, respectively. We found that childhood exposure to p,p’-DDT and -DDE was associated with altered patterns of brain activation during tasks of cognition and executive functions. For example, we observed increased activity in the left frontal lobe during a language comprehension task (β per 10 ng/g lipid increase of serum p,p’-DDE at age 9 years = 3.4; 95% CI: 0.0, 6.9 in the left inferior frontal lobe; and β = 4.2; 95% CI: 0.9, 7.5 in the left superior frontal lobe). We found no sex differences in the associations of childhood p,p’-DDT and -DDE concentrations with neural activity. Associations between prenatal p,p’-DDT and p,p’-DDE concentrations and brain activity were similar to those observed for child p,p’-DDT and -DDE concentrations. Childhood p,p’-DDT and -DDE exposure may impact cortical brain activation, which could be an underlying mechanism for its previously reported associations with poorer cognitive function. •Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) is a persistent organochlorine pesticide.•p,p’-DD/E were measured in child serum at 9 years and back-extrapolated during pregnancy.•Functional near-infrared spectroscopy was performed in 95 children aged 15–17 years.•p,p’-DDT/E concentrations were associated with altered patterns of cortical activation.•Most associations were found for language comprehension and executive function tasks.
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ISSN:0013-9351
1096-0953
1096-0953
DOI:10.1016/j.envres.2022.113461