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Prenatal exposure to common chemicals linked with drop in child IQ

Submitted by Fiona McPherson on

Following a previous study linking higher maternal levels of two common chemicals with slower mental and motor development in preschoolers, a new study has found that this effect continues into school age.

The study involved 328 inner-city mothers and their children. The mothers' levels of prenatal urinary metabolites of di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP), butylbenzyl phthalate (BBzP), di-isobutyl phthalate (DiBP), di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate and diethyl phthalate were measured in late pregnancy. IQ tests were given to the children at age 7.

Pregnancy

Older news items (pre-2010) brought over from the old website

Review supports mild memory impairment in pregnancy

A review of 14 studies testing the memory performances of more than 1,000 pregnant women, mothers and non-pregnant women, has found that pregnant women performed significantly worse on some, but not all aspects of the test. The hardest tests for the pregnant women were those that involved new or demanding tasks. Regular, well-practiced memory tasks were unlikely to be affected. The impairment wasn’t large — comparable to the modest deficits you'd find when comparing healthy 20-year-olds with healthy 60-year-olds. However, the impairment was sometimes still evident a year after birth (none looked beyond that point).

Henry, J. D., & Rendell, P. G. (2007). A review of the impact of pregnancy on memory function. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 29(8), 793-793. Retrieved from http://www.informaworld.com/10.1080/13803390701612209

http://www.physorg.com/news121413361.html

Effect of pregnancy on cognition depends on fetal gender

An intriguing new study may shed light on the conflicting results reported regarding the effect of pregnancy on cognition. The study, which tracked women throughout pregnancy through to postnatal resumption of menstruation, found that there was a significant effect of the sex of the baby on working memory and spatial ability. Women pregnant with boys consistently outperformed women pregnant with girls on these tests.

Vanston, C. M., & Watson, N. , V. (2005). Selective and persistent effect of foetal sex on cognition in pregnant women. Neuroreport, 16(7), 779-782. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15858424

No support for idea that pregnancy affects memory and concentration

A study of pregnant women found many agreed with the popular view that pregnancy affects your memory. However, mental tests during pregnancy and after the birth found no difference between the performance of women who were pregnant and those who were not. It was possible that the affects are too mild to be picked up by the tests, or that the fatigue commonly experienced by women during pregnancy and early motherhood leads women to believe that their memory and concentration are affected.

The research was presented at the British Psychological Society annual conference in Bournemouth.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2847797.stm

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