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Project

Residential surrounding greenness, traffic exposure and maternal stress as determinants of neurocognitive and neurobehavioural development during the first decade of life in twins and triplets (R-7351)

Surrounding greenness at home, air pollution and maternal stress have been related to reduction of behavioural problems and improvement of cognitive development, but little is known about mechanism(s) underlying such associations. We hypothesize that exposure to residential greenness might affect in utero stress conditions, both social, as maternal perceived stress, as well as biological stress (inflammation) which both might play a role in behavioural and cognitive development in children. Our hypothesis is supported by available animal experiments showing cognitive effects of particulate air pollution exposure due to a pro-inflammatory state. There are very few human studies on cognitive development and residential traffic and greenness surrounding and non in a susceptible population segment such as twins and triplets. In the first part of this project, neurocognition was assed among 663 twins pairs with a mean age of 10.4 years old by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and among 752 twins pairs (mean age of 8.2 years), the neurobehavioural outcome was examined with the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL). Both test were performed by 52 triplet sets (140 children). In addition, placentation and perinatal data were recorded at birth. In a second prospective part, momentary maternal stress during pregnancy will be assessed using The Experience Sampling Method (ESM), the Perceived Stress Scale and cortisol concentrations measured in hair. The association between maternal stress and residential greenness will be assessed. In addition, the intermediate role of maternal stress will be evaluated in the relationship between residential air pollution and biological marker of oxidative stress/inflammation. Greenness of the immediate home environment will be evaluated using detailed satellite-derived data, exposure to pre- and postnatal exposure will be assessed by use of land use and dispersion models.
Date:1 Oct 2016 →  31 May 2022
Keywords:Maternale stress, traffic exposure, twins
Disciplines:General biology, Plant biology