Prenatal Alcohol and/or Tobacco Exposure, White-Matter Microstructure, and Cognition: Analyzing a South African Birth Cohort With Neurite Orientation and Dendrite Dispersion Imaging

IF 2.7 Q2 SUBSTANCE ABUSE

Alcohol (Hanover, York County, Pa.) Pub Date : 2026-08-04 DOI:10.1111/acer.70387

Eric Kan, Andrew T. Marshall, Deborah Jonker, Letitia Butler-Kruger, Weslin Charles, Asheeqa Petersen, Lucy T. Brink, Jonathan C. Ipser, Shantanu H. Joshi, Katherine L. Narr, Hein J. Odendaal, Freda Scheffler, Kirsten A. Donald, Dan J. Stein, Elizabeth R. Sowell

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Prenatal exposure to alcohol (PAE) and/or tobacco (PTE) may impact neurobiological and cognitive development years after such exposures have occurred. While such effects on cortical gray matter and cognition are widely researched, there is less research on the effects of PAE and PTE on white-matter development and cognition, particularly in non-clinical, community samples.

Methods

We analyzed white-matter microstructure and its cognitive correlates in four hundred and sixty five 8–12-year-olds in the urban Cape Town region of South Africa: 192 were prenatally exposed to alcohol and tobacco (PAE + PTE), 73 to tobacco only (PTE), 102 to alcohol only (PAE), and 98 to neither tobacco nor alcohol (CON). White-matter microstructure was quantified via neurite orientation and dendrite dispersion imaging (NODDI). The outcome variables were fractional anisotropy (FA), the neurite density index (NDI), and neurite orientation dispersion index (ODI) for 52 white-matter tracts. Cognition was measured using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Fifth Edition (WISC-V).

Results

PAE (but not PTE) was associated with NDI in 35 of 52 white-matter tracts analyzed. There were no false-discovery-rate (FDR) corrected main effects of PAE or PTE on FA or ODI. For 17 of the 35 tracts affected by PAE, the corresponding NDIs were positively associated with scores on the WISC-V Processing Speed Index.

Conclusions

Our previous research of neuroanatomical structure in this cohort suggested that there are stronger effects of PTE on cortical gray matter. In contrast, the present data suggest that PAE may have stronger associations with white-matter microstructure, with such effects potentially manifesting as downstream deficits in processing speed.

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产前酒精和/或烟草暴露，白质微观结构和认知：分析南非出生队列与神经突定向和树突弥散成像。

背景：产前暴露于酒精（PAE）和/或烟草（PTE）可能会在暴露多年后影响神经生物学和认知发育。虽然这种对皮质灰质和认知的影响被广泛研究，但关于PAE和PTE对白质发育和认知的影响的研究较少，特别是在非临床，社区样本中。方法：我们分析了南非开普敦城市地区465名8-12岁儿童的白质微观结构及其认知相关因素：192人产前暴露于酒精和烟草（PAE + PTE）， 73人暴露于烟草（PTE）， 102人暴露于酒精（PAE）， 98人既不吸烟也不喝酒（CON）。通过神经突取向和树突弥散成像（NODDI）对白质微观结构进行量化。结果变量为52个白质束的分数各向异性（FA）、神经突密度指数（NDI）和神经突取向弥散指数（ODI）。认知使用韦氏儿童智力量表第五版（WISC-V）进行测量。结果：在分析的52个白质束中，有35个与PAE（而非PTE）相关。没有错误发现率（FDR）校正的PAE或PTE对FA或ODI的主要影响。在受PAE影响的35个地区中，有17个地区的ndi与WISC-V处理速度指数得分呈正相关。结论：我们之前对该队列神经解剖结构的研究表明，PTE对皮质灰质有更强的影响。相反，目前的数据表明，PAE可能与白质微观结构有更强的关联，这种影响可能表现为下游处理速度的缺陷。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Alcohol (Hanover, York County, Pa.)

CiteScore

5.40

自引率

0.00%

发文量