TY - JOUR
T1 - Lead exposure is associated with functional and microstructural changes in the healthy human brain
AU - Takeuchi, Hikaru
AU - Taki, Yasuyuki
AU - Nouchi, Rui
AU - Yokoyama, Ryoichi
AU - Kotozaki, Yuka
AU - Nakagawa, Seishu
AU - Sekiguchi, Atsushi
AU - Iizuka, Kunio
AU - Hanawa, Sugiko
AU - Araki, Tsuyoshi
AU - Miyauchi, Carlos Makoto
AU - Sakaki, Kohei
AU - Nozawa, Takayuki
AU - Ikeda, Shigeyuki
AU - Yokota, Susum
AU - Daniele, Magistro
AU - Sassa, Yuko
AU - Kawashima, Ryuta
N1 - Funding Information:
We respectfully thank Yuki Yamada for operating the MRI scanner, and Haruka Nouchi for being an examiner of psychological tests. We also thank study participants, the other examiners of psychological tests, and all of our colleagues in Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer and in Tohoku University for their support. This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) (KAKENHI 23700306) and a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A) (KAKENHI 25700012) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. The authors would like to thank Enago (www.enago.jp) for the English language review. We would like to thank La Belle Vie Inc. and its employees for the hair mineral level analyses as well as Dr Yasuda and Dr Sonobe for their technical advice regarding the analyses.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Lead is a toxin known to harm many organs in the body, particularly the central nervous system, across an individual’s lifespan. To date, no study has yet investigated the associations between body lead level and the microstructural properties of gray matter areas, and brain activity during attention-demanding tasks. Here, utilizing data of diffusion tensor imaging, functional magnetic resonance imaging and cognitive measures among 920 typically developing young adults, we show greater hair lead levels are weakly but significantly associated with (a) increased working memory-related activity in the right premotor and pre-supplemental motor areas, (b) lower fractional anisotropy (FA) in white matter areas near the internal capsule, (c) lower mean diffusivity (MD) in the dopaminergic system in the left hemisphere and other widespread contingent areas, and (d) greater MD in the white matter area adjacent to the right fusiform gyrus. Higher lead levels were also weakly but significantly associated with lower performance in tests of high-order cognitive functions, such as the psychometric intelligence test, greater impulsivity measures, and higher novelty seeking and extraversion. These findings reflect the weak effect of daily lead level on the excitability and microstructural properties of the brain, particularly in the dopaminergic system.
AB - Lead is a toxin known to harm many organs in the body, particularly the central nervous system, across an individual’s lifespan. To date, no study has yet investigated the associations between body lead level and the microstructural properties of gray matter areas, and brain activity during attention-demanding tasks. Here, utilizing data of diffusion tensor imaging, functional magnetic resonance imaging and cognitive measures among 920 typically developing young adults, we show greater hair lead levels are weakly but significantly associated with (a) increased working memory-related activity in the right premotor and pre-supplemental motor areas, (b) lower fractional anisotropy (FA) in white matter areas near the internal capsule, (c) lower mean diffusivity (MD) in the dopaminergic system in the left hemisphere and other widespread contingent areas, and (d) greater MD in the white matter area adjacent to the right fusiform gyrus. Higher lead levels were also weakly but significantly associated with lower performance in tests of high-order cognitive functions, such as the psychometric intelligence test, greater impulsivity measures, and higher novelty seeking and extraversion. These findings reflect the weak effect of daily lead level on the excitability and microstructural properties of the brain, particularly in the dopaminergic system.
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U2 - 10.1038/s42003-021-02435-0
DO - 10.1038/s42003-021-02435-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 34312468
AN - SCOPUS:85111693444
SN - 2399-3642
VL - 4
JO - Communications Biology
JF - Communications Biology
IS - 1
M1 - 912
ER -
