title: Prenatal Cannabis and Tobacco Exposure in Relation to Brain Morphology: A Prospective Neuroimaging Study in Young Children.
abstract: Cannabis use during pregnancy has been associated with negative behavioral outcomes and psychopathology in offspring. However, there has been little research evaluating alterations in brain structure as a result of maternal cannabis use. In this prospective study, we investigated the association between prenatal cannabis exposure and brain morphology in young children.
  
  
  
  We matched 96 children prenatally exposed to tobacco only (without cannabis) with 113 unexposed control subjects on the basis of age and gender and subsequently selected 54 children exposed to prenatal cannabis (mostly combined with tobacco exposure). These children (aged 6 to 8 years) were part of a population-based study in the Netherlands, the Generation R Study, and were followed from pregnancy onward. We assessed brain volumetric measures and cortical thickness in magnetic resonance imaging scans using FreeSurfer. We performed vertexwise analyses in FreeSurfer and linear regression analyses adjusting for relevant covariates using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.
  
  
  
  Prenatal cannabis exposure was not associated with global brain volumes, such as total brain volume, gray matter volume, or white matter volume. However, prenatal cannabis exposure was associated with differences in cortical thickness: compared with nonexposed control subjects, cannabis-exposed children had thicker frontal cortices. Prenatal tobacco exposure compared with nonexposed control subjects was associated with cortical thinning, primarily in the superior frontal and superior parietal cortices.
  
  
  
  Our findings suggest an association between prenatal cannabis exposure and cortical thickness in children. Further research is needed to explore the causal nature of this association.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Generation R Study Group, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: h.marrounel@erasmusmc.nl.
authors.forename: Hanan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: El Marroun
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Henning
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tiemeier
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ingmar H A
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Franken
authors.affiliation: Generation R Study Group, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Departments of Pediatrics, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Vincent W V
authors.initials: VW
authors.lastname: Jaddoe
authors.affiliation: Radiology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Aad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van der Lugt
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Frank C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Verhulst
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: Benjamin B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Lahey
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Departments of Pediatrics, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tonya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D002188:Cannabis / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000254:growth & development; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009426:Netherlands; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*
keywords: Brain morphology; Neuroimaging; Pediatric brain development; Population-based study; Prenatal cannabis exposure; Prenatal tobacco exposure