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Journal article
Prenatal growth in humans and postnatal brain maturation into late adolescence
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, v 109(28), pp 11366-11371
10 Jul 2012
PMID: 22689983
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Abstract
Prenatal life encompasses a critical phase of human brain development, but neurodevelopmental consequences of normative differences in prenatal growth among full-term pregnancies remain largely uncharted. Here, we combine the power of a within-monozygotic twin study design with longitudinal neuroimaging methods that parse dissociable components of structural brain development between ages 3 and 30 y, to show that subtle variations of the in utero environment, as indexed by mild birth weight (BW) variation within monozygotic pairs, are accompanied by statistically significant (i) differences in postnatal intelligence quotient (IQ) and (ii) alterations of brain anatomy that persist at least into late adolescence. Greater BW within the normal range confers a sustained and generalized increase in brain volume, which in the cortical sheet, is specifically driven by altered surface area rather than cortical thickness. Surface area is maximally sensitive to BW variation within cortical regions implicated in the biology of several mental disorders, the risk for which is modified by normative BW variation. We complement this near-experimental test of prenatal environmental influences on human brain development by replicating anatomical findings in dizygotic twins and unrelated singletons. Thus, using over 1,000 brain scans, across three independent samples, we link subtle differences in prenatal growth, within ranges seen among the majority of human pregnancies, to protracted surface area alterations, that preferentially impact later-maturing associative cortices important for higher cognition. By mapping the sensitivity of postnatal human brain development to prenatal influences, our findings underline the potency of in utero life in shaping postnatal outcomes of neuroscientific and public health importance.
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Details
- Title
- Prenatal growth in humans and postnatal brain maturation into late adolescence
- Creators
- Armin Raznahan - National Institute of Mental HealthDeanna Greenstein - NIMH, Child Psychiat Branch, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892 USANancy Raitano Lee - NIMH, Child Psychiat Branch, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892 USALiv S. Clasen - NIMH, Child Psychiat Branch, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892 USAJay N. Giedd - NIMH, Child Psychiat Branch, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA
- Publication Details
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, v 109(28), pp 11366-11371
- Publisher
- Natl Acad Sciences
- Number of pages
- 6
- Grant note
- ZIAMH002794 / NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences (Psychology)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000306642100068
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84863950138
- Other Identifier
- 991019297213504721
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- Web of Science research areas
- Neurosciences