title: Impact of preeclampsia on cognitive function in the offspring.
abstract: Preeclampsia (PE) is a significant clinical disorder occurring in 3-5% of all human pregnancies. Offspring of PE pregnancies (PE-F1s) are reported to exhibit greater cognitive impairment than offspring from uncomplicated pregnancies. Previous studies of PE-F1 cognitive ability used tests with bias that do not assess specific cognitive domains. To improve cognitive impairment classification in PE-F1s we used standardized clinical psychometric testing and eye tracking studies of saccadic eye movements. PE-F1s (n=10) and sex/age matched control participants (n=41 for psychometrics; n=59 for eye-tracking) were recruited from the PE-NET study or extracted from the NeuroDevNet study databases. Participants completed a selected array of psychometric tests which assessed executive function, working memory, attention, inhibition, visuospatial processing, reading, and math skills. Eye-tracking studies included the prosaccade, antisaccade, and memory-guided tasks. Psychometric testing revealed an impairment in working memory among PE-F1s. Eye-tracking studies revealed numerous impairments among PE-F1s including additional saccades required to reach the target, poor endpoint accuracy, and slower reaction time. However, PE-F1s made faster saccades than controls, and fewer sequence errors in the memory-guided task. Our study provides a comprehensive assessment of cognitive function among PE-F1s. The development of PE may be seen as an early predictor of reduced cognitive function in children, specifically in working memory and oculomotor control. Future studies should extended to a larger study populations, and may be valuable for early studies of children born to pregnancies complicated by other disorders, such as gestational diabetes or intrauterine growth restriction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: m.ratsep@queensu.ca.
authors.forename: Matthew T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Rätsep
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Andrew F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Hickman
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Brandon
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Maser
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kingston General Hospital, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pudwell
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kingston General Hospital, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Graeme N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Donald
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Brien
authors.affiliation: Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Patrick W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Stroman
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: James N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Reynolds
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: B Anne
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Croy
authors.affiliation: Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Angelina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paolozza
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000209:etiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011594:Psychometrics; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Children; Developmental origins of disease; Eye-tracking; Preeclampsia; Psychometrics; Working memory