Pilot Project

Project Title:  Examining the Effects of Chlorpyrifos on Attention and Neurodevelopment”

Principal Investigator: Jonathan Posner, MD, (Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry)

Year: 2011

Award Amount:  $25,000

Abstract:  This study aims to examine the effects of prenatal exposure of chlorpyrifos (CPF) on neuroanatomical correlates of attention. The study will be conducted in collaboration with Drs. Virginia Rauh and Bradley Peterson, who are currently carrying out an R01-funded prospective study of the impact of environmental pollutants on brain development. As part of the Rauh–Peterson study, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scans have been obtained in 40 children at ages 7–9 for whom CPF levels in umbilical cord blood have been recorded. For the funded pilot, funds were requested to process and analyze 40 rs-fMRI scans, 20 children with high and 20 with low levels of CPF exposure. The goal is to examine the influence of CPF on the neural connectivity of the brain’s default mode network (DMN)—a neural network critical in establishing attentional regulation. The principle hypotheses are that in the children who are CPF prenatally exposed vs those who are unexposed, elevated symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity and altered neural connectivity within the brain’s DMN will be found; and that finally the altered connectivity within the DMN will mediate the relationship of CPF exposure with the symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity.