‘Prenatal exposure to chemicals can alter baby’s brain activity’

Published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers used functional near-infrared imaging to monitor blood flow in the brain of 95 teenagers from Salina Valley in California, where spraying pesticides is common.

Pregnant women who are exposed to chemicals are at risk of having kids with poor cognition and behavioural problems, according to a recent study.

Published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers used functional near-infrared imaging to monitor blood flow in the brain of 95 teenagers from Salina Valley in California, where spraying pesticides is common.

The teenagers were estimated to have higher levels of prenatal exposure to organophosphates (commonly used in pesticides) and showed altered brain activity who engaged in various tasks that required executive function, attention, social cognition and language comprehension.

Teens with high prenatal exposure to chemicals were found to have less blood flow to the frontal cortex when doing tasks involving cognitive flexibility and visual working memory. They had more blood flow to the parietal and temporal lobes during tests of linguistic working memory.

“We are seeing more directly the potential impact of organophosphate exposure on the brain, and it may be more sensitive to neurological deficit than cognitive testing,” senior author Brenda Ezkenazi, professor, UC Berkeley, was quoted as saying.

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