Early life factors and white matter microstructure in children with overweight and obesity: The ActiveBrains project.
Academic achievement
Birth weight
Childhood
White matter
Journal
Clinical nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland)
ISSN: 1532-1983
Titre abrégé: Clin Nutr
Pays: England
ID NLM: 8309603
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
01 2022
01 2022
Historique:
received:
21
04
2021
revised:
05
10
2021
accepted:
23
10
2021
pubmed:
6
12
2021
medline:
26
2
2022
entrez:
5
12
2021
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Exposure to a suboptimal environment during the fetal and early infancy period's results in long-term consequences for brain morphology and function. We investigated the associations of early life factors such as anthropometric neonatal data (i.e., birth length, birth weight and birth head circumference) and breastfeeding practices (i.e., exclusive and any breastfeeding) with white matter (WM) microstructure, and ii) we tested whether WM tracts related to early life factors are associated with academic performance in children with overweight/obesity. 96 overweight/obese children (10.03 ± 1.16 years; 38.7% girls) were included from the ActiveBrains Project. WM microstructure indicators used were fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD), derived from Diffusion Tensor Imaging. Academic performance was evaluated with the Battery III Woodcock-Muñoz Tests of Achievement. Regression models were used to examine the associations of the early life factors with tract-specific FA and MD, as well as its association with academic performance. Head circumference at birth was positively associated with FA of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus tract (0.441; p = 0.005), as well as negatively associated with MD of the cingulate gyrus part of cingulum (-0.470; p = 0.006), corticospinal (-0.457; p = 0.005) and superior thalamic radiation tract (-0.476; p = 0.001). Association of birth weight, birth length and exclusive breastfeeding with WM microstructure did not remain significant after false discovery rate correction. None tract related to birth head circumference was associated with academic performance (all p > 0.05). Our results highlighted the importance of the perinatal growth in WM microstructure later in life, although its possible academic implications remain inconclusive.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND & AIMS
Exposure to a suboptimal environment during the fetal and early infancy period's results in long-term consequences for brain morphology and function. We investigated the associations of early life factors such as anthropometric neonatal data (i.e., birth length, birth weight and birth head circumference) and breastfeeding practices (i.e., exclusive and any breastfeeding) with white matter (WM) microstructure, and ii) we tested whether WM tracts related to early life factors are associated with academic performance in children with overweight/obesity.
METHODS
96 overweight/obese children (10.03 ± 1.16 years; 38.7% girls) were included from the ActiveBrains Project. WM microstructure indicators used were fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD), derived from Diffusion Tensor Imaging. Academic performance was evaluated with the Battery III Woodcock-Muñoz Tests of Achievement. Regression models were used to examine the associations of the early life factors with tract-specific FA and MD, as well as its association with academic performance.
RESULTS
Head circumference at birth was positively associated with FA of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus tract (0.441; p = 0.005), as well as negatively associated with MD of the cingulate gyrus part of cingulum (-0.470; p = 0.006), corticospinal (-0.457; p = 0.005) and superior thalamic radiation tract (-0.476; p = 0.001). Association of birth weight, birth length and exclusive breastfeeding with WM microstructure did not remain significant after false discovery rate correction. None tract related to birth head circumference was associated with academic performance (all p > 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS
Our results highlighted the importance of the perinatal growth in WM microstructure later in life, although its possible academic implications remain inconclusive.
Identifiants
pubmed: 34864454
pii: S0261-5614(21)00502-1
doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2021.10.022
pii:
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
40-48Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Conflict of Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest.