Traffic pollution negatively impacts neurodevelopment in infants up to 18 months, with male children showing a higher vulnerability.
Traffic-related air pollution during pregnancy may lead to lasting impacts on a child’s ability to think, move, and speak, according to a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), which followed 168 families from the Barcelona Life Study Cohort (BiSC). (1✔ ✔Trusted Source
Prenatal exposure to air pollution and infant cognitive development using an eye-tracking visual paired-comparison task
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The findings reveal that prenatal exposure to air pollution is directly linked to lower cognitive development in infants (up to 18 months old), particularly male children are more vulnerable.
The research specifically looked common city air pollutants, including PM2.5/PM10, Black Carbon (tiny particles from car exhausts and soot), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Copper, and Iron, that affect toddler’s cognitive health. (2✔ ✔Trusted Source
Prenatal exposure to ambient air pollution is associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 years of age
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The results showed that mothers exposed to higher pollution levels, especially during the middle and late stages of pregnancy, had children with lower scores in thinking/problem solving, memory, motor skills, and language (verbal skills).
Researchers are now calling for stricter environmental policies and cleaner city air to ensure every child has the better future health.
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Prenatal exposure to #air_pollutants #PM2.5 and PM10 (fine and coarse dust/soot) is associated with lower thinking, problem-solving, #motor_skills, and #communication in babies up to age 2. Experts urge stricter policies to halt traffic pollutants like copper and #blackcarbon.
#airpollution #PM2.5 #infantmemory #cognitivehealth #environmentalhealth
Scientists are Assessing Infant Cognitive Development with Eye-Tracking
Cognitive development was assessed using eye-tracking, a non-invasive technique that evaluates how infants process visual information. A total of 180 infants participated at 6 months of age, with 75 re-evaluated at 18 months.
During the test, infants were first familiarized with an image and then presented with two images simultaneously: one familiar and one new. The system recorded gaze duration for each image.
A longer gaze at the new image, known as “novelty preference”, indicates recognition of the familiar image and better memory performance.
Black Carbon and Copper are Identified as the Most Harmful Pollutants
“This is the first study to examine the relationship between prenatal exposure to air pollution and child neurodevelopment using an eye-tracking task.”
“This approach provides a more objective, direct measure that does not rely on clinician-administered scoring or caregiver reports, making it a robust and innovative tool for assessing early cognitive development,” says Carmen Peuters, ISGlobal researcher and first author of the study.
The analysis found that higher prenatal exposure to air pollutants leads to lower novelty preference in visual memory tasks, indicating lower cognitive performance in newborns.
The strongest associations were observed for black carbon, PM2.5, and copper content in PM2.5. For all pollutants, associations were stronger in boys than in girls, suggesting potential sex-specific vulnerability.
Structural Changes in the Fetal Brain Linked to Prenatal Pollution Exposure
“Several biological mechanisms may explain how prenatal exposure to air pollution affects neurodevelopment. Pollutants can cross the placental barrier, triggering systemic inflammation and oxidative stress in the fetus, which may interfere with brain development,” notes Jordi Sunyer, BiSC project coordinator and senior author of the study.
These findings add to growing evidence that air pollution not only harms lung and cardiovascular health but also affects neurodevelopment. In this sense, a previous study by the same team showed that prenatal pollution exposure is associated with changes in fetal brain structures.
“Our results confirm that the prenatal period represents a critical window of vulnerability to environmental exposures and reinforce the need for stricter environmental policies and targeted measures to protect the health of pregnant women and children,” emphasizes Joan Birulés, researcher at the University of Barcelona and one of the study’s authors.
Reference:
- Prenatal exposure to air pollution and infant cognitive development using an eye-tracking visual paired-comparison task – (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749125018706?via%3Dihub)
- Prenatal exposure to ambient air pollution is associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 years of age – ( https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12940-022-00951-y)
Source-Eurekalert