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#YESquote: Better Late than Never: Understand, Survive & Thrive #MidlifeADHD Dx-Emma Mahony/Sari Solden - "ADHD is a #neurodevelopmental disorder, not a #behavioral one. This rules out the theory that it is due to poor parenting, too much TV, junk food, & other myths." #Neurodiversity bit.ly/450dT7I
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#YESquote: Better Late than Never: Understand, Survive…
Bluesky Social Childhood exposure to #aluminium found in #vaccines is not linked to an increased risk of #autoimmune, #allergic, or #neurodevelopmental disorders such as #ADHD and #autism, according to international researchers
Aluminium in childhood vaccines not linked to autoimmune,…
ScimexHow does air pollution impact your brain?
Image credit: Ionut Stefan
We’ve known for some time that air pollution is bad for human health. However, the focus was mostly on the lungs, and to some extent, the heart. After all, airborne pollutants are inhaled through the lungs and can reach the heart through the bloodstream, so it’s not surprising these take the brunt of the damage. But somewhere along the way, it became somewhat mainstream to consider how air pollution might affects brains too.
What I found surprising was the recency of that acknowledgement. Isolated studies of air pollution effects on brain health go back earlier, but serious consideration of the matter started only around the 2010s. As an example, Deborah Cory-Slechta, now a prominent researcher in this field, began focusing on its impact on the brain only in 2012. And air pollution was added as a risk for dementia as late as 2020 (remember 2020?). Despite mounting evidence of widespread negative effects, air pollution is still everywhere, with the World Health Organization estimating that 99% of the world’s population is exposed to higher than recommended levels. I’ll say it again: 99% of the entire population of the world is exposed to levels of air pollution higher than the recommended limits.
But let’s start from the beginning. What do we mean when we say air pollution? Which brain disorders has it been linked to and why are there so many of them? And finally, what can we do other than read this article and feel upset?
Air pollution – a complex mixture
As is often the case, we’re dealing with a broad term. “Air pollution” covers emissions from cars, power plants, wildfires, gas stoves, and more. Major pollutants released into the atmosphere from all these sources include carbon monoxide, ammonia, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter. The latter refers to tiny solid or liquid particles suspended in air, or in other words, anything that isn’t a gas. Particulate matter, or PM, is further classified according to size: PM10 refers to particles of 10 um or smaller, PM2.5 – 2.5 um or smaller, and ultrafine particles (UFPs) are those smaller than 0.1 um. This is important because, obviously, the smaller ones move around the body more easily, which makes them more dangerous for our health.
Some pollutants, like particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, are released directly into the atmosphere. These are called primary pollutants. Others form later through chemical reactions in the air. These are secondary pollutants. To make things even messier, heavy metals like lead and mercury can also be airborne and have been linked to harmful effects on the brain. For simplicity, we’ll talk about all of these under the same umbrella of air pollution, because they all contribute to negative health outcomes, including effects on the brain.
Still, you should keep in mind that this lumping isn’t how regulation and research typically work. For them, the complexity matters. Because regulation usually targets specific pollutants, studies have to isolate the effects of each one. In the real world though, the air is an everything-mixture. Primary pollutants contribute to the formation of secondary pollutants and we inhale a bunch of substances at once. That makes it even more difficult to say exactly which pollutant leads to what effect, but it might also mean that their combined effects might go underestimated.
Brain disorders associated with air pollution
It might’ve only been 10-15 years since the neuroscientific community turned its focus on how air pollution impacts the brain, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a productive time. Researchers have combed the entire lifespan in search of effects and consequences, and this work has yielded impressive results.
Damage related to air pollution in the brain begins actually even before birth. Fetuses receive nutrients and oxygen through the placenta, a temporary organ that allows blood flow between the mother and the fetus. As you can imagine, a healthy placenta is important for a healthy fetus. Unfortunately, exposure to pollution can cause the placenta to shrink, reducing blood flow and nutrient delivery. Studies in mice and rats have demonstrated this effect quite clearly. In women exposed to UFPs at work, the placenta was also affected. Since the placenta contributes to the proper development of the fetal brain, these changes can have downstream effects in terms of brain development.
Perhaps the most examined neurodevelopmental condition in relation to air pollution is autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A meta-analysis of 28 studies, including 758,997 newborns, with 47,190 having an ASD diagnosis, found that exposure to 5 μg/m³ of PM2.5 either before conception, during pregnancy, or after birth was linked to an increase in autism diagnoses between 5 and 17% (depending on exposure timing and the model used). As a side note, the 5 μg/m³ value for PM2.5 is the recommended limit set by the WHO.
Other disorders have been linked too, although the evidence is a bit less overwhelming. Meta-analyses have found associations between air pollution and both ADHD and schizophrenia across multiple countries. The effects aren’t as strong or consistent as they are for ASD, but they still show up often enough to raise concern.
At the other end of the lifespan, chronic exposure to air pollution has been linked to neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia (as we mentioned above, air pollution was added as a risk factor for dementia in 2020).
And it doesn’t end there. Some studies have also linked increases in anxiety and depressive symptoms with air pollution levels, although some gaps remain here.
Effects of air pollution on brain structure
Air pollution hasn’t been linked just to symptoms, but to structural brain changes as well. In children, exposure has been associated with decreases in both grey and white matter volume across multiple regions and circuits, including the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuit, which in turn appears to be involved in multiple neurodevelopmental disorders.
Similarly, in adults, structural changes appear in both grey and white matter. Particularly interesting here is one study which found that vigorous physical activity mediates the effects of exposure to PM2.5, but not in the way you might expect at first glance. It seems that people who were exposed to this type of pollution and exercised more had worse decreases in white matter volume. While further studies need to be conducted before drawing final conclusions, it is reasonable to assume that working out in more polluted areas increases the amount of pollutants inhaled, and leads to worse outcomes.
Why so many targets?
Air pollutants are diverse, of course, but still the question remains: how can they be linked to so many brain disorders and how can they have such widespread influence on brain structure? After all, neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders come with different symptoms, affect different brain areas, and follow different timelines.
It’s because despite those differences, these disorders share some common threads. And air pollution seems to pull on all of them. Inflammation, for one, shows up across the board. Many of these conditions involve chronic activation of microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells. Air pollution is a known inflammation trigger.
Another shared vulnerability lies in the mitochondria. Mitochondrial dysfunction is increasingly being acknowledged across a range of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. On the other hand, preliminary studies link air pollution to the mitochondria. For example, UFPs have been found in the mitochondria of the brains of people chronically exposed to air pollution.
Then there’s glutamate, the brain’s primary excitatory neurotransmitter. We need it to function, but excess glutamate is toxic, leading to white matter damage, among others. And you guessed it, air pollution has been shown to alter glutamatergic function.
So when we ask why so many brain disorders seem to link back to pollution, the answer is that it taps into mechanisms that a lot of them already have in common.
What to do?
We’ve said this before, panic for the sake of panic is useless. First and foremost, we need to keep in mind that exposure to air pollution doesn’t lead to all-or-nothing effects. So even if you can’t completely avoid it, reducing exposure will still help.
Of course, what you can do depends a lot on your personal circumstances. But here are a few tips you can pick and choose from. Indoors (where many of us spend a lot of time), try to avoid ventilating when the air quality is bad. Usually, you can check online how that looks like for your region at any point in time, plus you can assume that ventilating during rush hour is a no-no. If you can, get an air purifier that can filter PM2.5 particles. Outdoors, you can try to avoid high-traffic areas. If the air is particularly bad, you can even consider wearing an N95 mask.
It goes without saying, but you can also take active action against pollution. It might not amount to much on an individual level, but it does add up.
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References
Cory-Slechta, D. A., Merrill, A., & Sobolewski, M. (2023). Air Pollution–Related Neurotoxicity Across the Life Span. Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology, 63(1), 143–163. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-pharmtox-051921-020812
Drew, L. (2025). Air pollution and brain damage: what the science says. Nature, 637(8046), 536–538. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00053-y
Furlong, M. A., Alexander, G. E., Klimentidis, Y. C., & Raichlen, D. A. (2022). Association of Air Pollution and Physical Activity With Brain Volumes. Neurology, 98(4). https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000013031
Liu, D., Gao, Q., Wang, Y., & Xiong, T. (2022). Placental dysfunction: The core mechanism for poor neurodevelopmental outcomes in the offspring of preeclampsia pregnancies. Placenta, 126, 224–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2022.07.014
Livingston, G., Huntley, J., Sommerlad, A., Ames, D., Ballard, C., Banerjee, S., Brayne, C., Burns, A., Cohen-Mansfield, J., Cooper, C., Costafreda, S. G., Dias, A., Fox, N., Gitlin, L. N., Howard, R., Kales, H. C., Kivimäki, M., Larson, E. B., Ogunniyi, A., … Mukadam, N. (2020). Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission. The Lancet, 396(10248), 413–446. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30367-6
Sammallahti, S., Tiemeier, H., Louwen, S., Steegers, E., Hillegers, M., Jaddoe, V. W. V., & White, T. (2021). Fetal–placental blood flow and neurodevelopment in childhood: population‐based neuroimaging study. Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology, 58(2), 245–253. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1002/uog.22185
Zundel, C. G., Ryan, P., Brokamp, C., Heeter, A., Huang, Y., Strawn, J. R., & Marusak, H. A. (2022). Air pollution, depressive and anxiety disorders, and brain effects: A systematic review. NeuroToxicology, 93, 272–300. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuro.2022.10.011
World Health Organization. (2025, July 4). Billions of people still breathe unhealthy air: New who data. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news/item/04-04-2022-billions-of-people-still-breathe-unhealthy-air-new-who-data
#airPollution #brain #health #neurodegenerative #neurodevelopmental
Liprin-α & RIM form presynaptic liquid phase-separated condensates #LLPS. This Primer explores a @PLOSBiology study of how these assemblies shape #synaptic fidelity and what their disruption might mean in #neurodevelopmental disease. Paper: https://plos.io/3Tj5CX7 Primer: https://plos.io/3HTacJ9
SciTech Chronicles. . . . . . . . .Mar 2nd, 2025
#Climate #Helsinki #boreal #forests #comprehension #neurological #cognitive #evolution #drug-resistant #biofilms #ReCA #genes #Attention-deficit #neurodevelopmental #predisposition #Gene-environment #Maddaloni/X-6 #second-largest #Campanian #calder
Science is an attempt to remove our emotions and…
scitechchron.blogspot.com“It assessed 99 Banksia Hill detainees, with nine out of ten of those children having at least one form of severe #neurodevelopmental impairment.” #neurodivergent #youthjustice https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-19/fiona-stanley-hannah-mcglade-gerry-georgatos-cleveland-dodd-/104481052
A year ago today, WA's youth detention system reached…
ABC News#FloorWaxing could be an important source of #PFAS #contamination, with increased #occupational health risks for #workers
May 25, 2022
"There’s a special satisfaction that comes from walking on perfectly shined floors — but is it worth the potential risk to floor waxing workers?
"A study published earlier this year measured per- and #polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in #dust and airborne #ParticulateMatter [which means it's going into the air that everyone breathes -- just not humans] during professional floor stripping and waxing. After estimating PFAS emission rates generated from the process, researchers concluded that significantly higher levels of PFAS were present during floor waxing.
"The study was led by Jiaqi Zhou, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. Collaborators include Karsten Baumann; Naomi Chang; Glenn Morrison; Wanda Bodnar; Zhenfa Zhang; Jason Surratt; and Barbara J. Turpin — all with the Gillings School — and Joanna M. Atkin, with UNC’s Department of Chemistry.
"PFAS are human-produced chemicals commonly used in industry and consumer products. Most PFAS do not break down over time, so they remain in the environment and in the bodies of exposed human and #animals long after initial use. Scientific studies have shown that exposure to PFAS may be linked to harmful health effects, which was the impetus for this study.
"Published in Atmospheric Environment, the paper reports that floor waxing floor waxing workers could have increased occupational health risks due to PFAS exposures.
“Assessment of occupational exposure due to floor maintenance is important because PFAS exposures can lead to increased risk of #cancer, #immunotoxicity and #neurodevelopmental problems, the co-authors write."
#PFASPollution #WaterIsLife #EnvironmentalPollution #CleaningProducts #FloorWax #EnvironmentalPollution
May 25, 2022 There’s a special satisfaction that comes…
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health10 Times as Much of This #Toxic #Pesticide Could End Up on Your #Tomatoes and #Celery Under a New #EPA Proposal
Against the guidance of scientific advisory panels, the EPA is relying on industry-backed tests to relax regulations on #acephate, which has been linked to #neurodevelopmental disorders. “It’s exactly what we recommended against,” one panelist said.
Against the guidance of scientific advisory panels,…
www.propublica.org“Chemical pollution tied to fossil fuel operations poses serious risks to human health, warns a new analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine #NEJM on Wednesday.
Citing data from dozens of studies, the report points to an alarming rise in #neurodevelopmental issues, #diabetes, chronic #respiratory disease, and certain #cancers in young people taking place amid what the paper’s author calls “explosive growth” in the petrochemical industry. “ https://mastodon.energy/@CarbonBubble/112061179143565037
Attached: 1 image Chemical #pollution tied to #FossilFuel…
mastodon.energyDoes fluoride in drinking water lower IQ? Question looms large in court battle
https://www.science.org/content/article/does-fluoride-drinking-water-lower-iq-question-looms-large-court-battle #fluoride #brain #growth #neurodevelopmental #exposure #EPA
Down syndrome, a #congenital disorder stemming from abnormal #cell division and differentiation, is most common in newborns fated to #neurodevelopmental delays and other health complications.
#Biology #Medical #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2023/12/bio12212302.html
researchers at Kyoto University have identified the…
www.sflorg.comGiasante et al. found PCDH19-negative hyperexcitable neurons and global reduction in #network activity, offering new insights into this complex #neurodevelopmental disorder.
Aided by 3Brain’s high-resolution #biointerface technology!
Check out:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-023-02022-1
Immune-#synaptopathies:
New review by Michela Mtteoli and colleagues discusses the contribution of environmental factors such as maternal #infection and# inflammation in the etiology of #neurodevelopmental disorders
https://www.embopress.org/doi/10.15252/embj.2023113796
#COVID news 3/31/23
#Pregnancy part 2
"A different study in JAMA shows that boys exposed to SARS-CoV-2 infection in utero may be at increased risk for neurodevelopmental disorders, but the same was not found in girls. Baby boys born to mothers with COVID infection in pregnancy had a significant increase of #neurodevelopmental diagnoses at 12 months, even when controlling for preterm delivery."
2/n
XBB.1.5 is at about 88% of cases now. There are a few…
drruth.substack.comMeet Dr Emily Warren, 1st author of new #OpenAccess paper from Dr Eric Morrow's lab at #BrownUniversity
They developed the 1st lab model of 17q12 deletion syndrome, a copy number variant disorder associated with #neurodevelopmental disorders and #RenalCysts and #diabetes syndrome. The #MouseModel recapitulated many features of the human disorder & will be used to guide #clinical & #mechanistic studies
Interview & research article: https://journals.biologists.com/dmm/article/15/12/dmm050017/285934/
https://journals.biologists.com/dmm/article/15/12/dmm049752/285935/
Schizophrenia is usually diagnosed in young adults when the 1st episode of #psychosis occurs but evidence suggests that abnormal #neurodevelopmental processes begin years before puberty.
A new Editorial from our Editor Steve Clapcote from #UniversityOfLeeds advocates for longitudinal studies across #developmental stages in mouse models that also harness novel finding from #GWAS. These studies would better reflect #schizophrenia pathophysiology & improve #DrugDiscovery
https://journals.biologists.com/dmm/article/15/11/dmm049970/285130/
Hello! I'm new here so I'll briefly introduce myself
I'm a postdoc in developmental psychology at the University of Basel studying #cognition, #gait and #motorskills with #EEG
Much of my research is centered around improving the understanding of #neurodevelopmental conditions and their co-occurrences, especially #ADHD and #DCD / #Dyspraxia
I'm looking forward to finding those of you with similar interests and engaging with the #neurodiverse community here!