Lead exposure is associated with functional and microstructural changes in the healthy human brain

Takeuchi, H, Taki, Y, Nouchi, R, Yokoyama, R, Kotozaki, Y, Nakagawa, S, Sekiguchi, A, Iizuka, K, Hanawa, S, Araki, T, Miyauchi, CM, Sakaki, K, Nozawa, T, Ikeda, S, Yokota, S, Magistro, D ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2554-3701, Sassa, Y and Kawashima, R, 2021. Lead exposure is associated with functional and microstructural changes in the healthy human brain. Communications Biology, 4 (1): 912.

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Communications Biology
Creators:	Takeuchi, H., Taki, Y., Nouchi, R., Yokoyama, R., Kotozaki, Y., Nakagawa, S., Sekiguchi, A., Iizuka, K., Hanawa, S., Araki, T., Miyauchi, C.M., Sakaki, K., Nozawa, T., Ikeda, S., Yokota, S., Magistro, D., Sassa, Y. and Kawashima, R.
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date:	December 2021
Volume:	4
Number:	1
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1038/s42003-021-02435-0 DOI 1454420 Other
Rights:	© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	01 Oct 2021 15:36
Last Modified:	01 Oct 2021 15:36
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/44310

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