Prenatal Tobacco Effects on Neuropsychological Outcomes Among Preadolescents

Abstract

This study evaluated the relationships between maternal smoking during pregnancy and 10-year-old children's performance on measures of learning, memory, and problem-solving. In this prospective cohort study, mothers were recruited from an urban prenatal clinic in 1982 and 1983 and observed from their fourth prenatal month until the time of the study. At the 10-year visit, 593 children and mothers were evaluated. The prevalence of tobacco use was high in this cohort: 54.3%, 53.3%, and 60% of the women smoked in the first trimester, third trimester, and 10-year assessment, respectively. After controlling statistically for other prenatal substance use, current tobacco, other substance use variables, and multiple sociodemographic covariates, prenatal tobacco exposure was significantly associated with deficits in learning and memory. Specifically, prenatal tobacco exposure was associated with deficits in verbal learning and design memory, as well as slowed responding on a test of eye-hand coordination. In addition, these children demonstrated a reduced ability for flexible problem solving and more impulsivity, as indicated by an increase in perseverative responses on a card-sorting test. Prenatally exposed children did not show attention deficits or increased activity on a continuous performance test.

Behavioral Teratogenicity Induced by Nonforced Maternal Nicotine Consumption

“…The impact of PNE on locomotion, learning of contextual cues associated to cocaine exposure and depression-like behavior (latency to escape in a learned helplessness paradigm) was evaluated. Learning disabilities have been also described in clinical studies of children (Fried et al, 2003;Cornelius et al, 2001), as well as rats exposed to nicotine in uterus (reviewed by Ernst et al, 2001). To examine the impact of PNE on learning capabilities, nicotine and control mice were also tested in trace fear conditioning, a fear-learning task dependent on the functional integrity of the hippocampal formation and prefrontal cortex (Han et al, 2003;Fendt et al, 2005).…”

Interrelations between maternal smoking during pregnancy, birth weight and sociodemographic factors in the prediction of early cognitive abilities

“…Both prenatal smoking (Batstra, Hadders-Algra, & Neeleman, 2003;Cornelius, Ryan, Day, Goldschmidt, & Willford, 2001;Fried et al, 2003;Kristjansson, Fried, & Watkinson, 1989;Mortensen, Michaelsen, Sanders, & Reinisch, 2005;Olds, Henderson, & Tatelbaum, 1994;Sexton, Fox, & Hebel, 1990) and birth weight (across the entire spectrum of birth weight, ranging up to 4-4.5 kg) (Breslau et al, 1996;Jefferis, Power, & Hertzman, 2002;Shenkin, Starr, & Deary, 2004) may be independent predictors of children's cognitive abilities, although reports have not been consistent. An increasing number of studies show that associations between prenatal smoking and offspring cognitive abilities are accounted for by specific sociodemographic factors such as parental IQ, parental education, SES, and family environment (Baghurst, Tong, Wood-ward, & McMichael, 1992;Breslau, Paneth, Lucia, & Paneth-Pollak, 2005;Fergusson & Lloyd, 1991;Lawlor et al, 2006;MacArthur, Knox, & Lancashire, 2001;McGee & Stanton, 1994;Trasti, Vik, Jakobsen, & Bakketeig, 1999).…”

Visuospatial Memory Deficits Emerging During Nicotine Withdrawal in Adolescents with Prenatal Exposure to Active Maternal Smoking

“…Prospective clinical studies have linked prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke to reductions in motor and verbal comprehension scores in children assessed at 13 months of age (Gusella and Fried, 1984), reductions in measures of language development, and general intellectual function in children assessed at 3, 4, 5, and 6 years of age (Fried and Watkinson, 1990;Fried et al, 1992), deficits in verbal and nonverbal learning and memory in preadolescents (Cornelius et al, 2001), and reductions in general intelligence in children assessed between 9 and 16 years of age (Fried et al, 1998(Fried et al, , 2003.…”