Sleep moderates how prenatal and childhood pollutant exposure impacts white matter microstructural integrity in adolescence.

ABSTRACT: Air pollution is a ubiquitous neurotoxicant linked to altered structural brain connectivity. Sleep may offer neuroprotection through its roles in brain waste clearance and immune regulation. Using Fitbit-derived sleep data and multi-shell diffusion MRI from 2178 children (ages 10-13) in the ABCD Study®, we examined whether sleep moderated associations between prenatal and childhood exposure to PM_2.5, NO₂, and O₃ and white matter microstructure. Restriction spectrum imaging yielded restricted normalized isotropic (RNI) and directional (RND) metrics, averaged across tracts. Pollution exposure was estimated at prenatal and childhood (ages 9-10) residences. Linear mixed-effects models tested sleep-by-pollution interactions on RNI/RND. Childhood NO₂ a

SUBMITTER: Cotter DL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12586141 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature