ArticleAJNR. American journal of neuroradiology2025
The Effect of Prenatal Marijuana Exposure on White Matter Microstructure and Cortical Morphology during Late Childhood.
Article in AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Prenatal and early-life determinants of neurodevelopment: A decade of discoveries and new directions in ABCD.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Review
- White matter reflects the childhood exposome.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
background and purposeMarijuana consumption by pregnant women has been steadily increasing during the past decades. Even though many pregnant women perceive marijuana consumption as safe during pregnancy, it has been previously linked to poor maternal and neonatal outcomes. The specific long-lasting neurodevelopmental alterations caused by prenatal marijuana exposure in children are still underexplored. Thus, this study aimed to determine the effect of prenatal marijuana exposure on brain neurodevelopment in late childhood. MATERIALS AND
methodsThis cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between prenatal marijuana exposure and neuroimaging markers of brain health. Data were obtained from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, a large, demographically diverse, multicenter cohort. The study included 1085 children, 418 of whom were prenatally exposed to marijuana and 667 matched controls with no prenatal exposure, with a mean age of 9.9 (SD, 0.6) years in both groups.
resultsWe found that prenatal exposure to marijuana is associated with brain alterations in white matter tracts and cortical regions essential for goal-directed behaviors, including motivation, cognitive skills for achieving specific objectives, and emotional processing. Direct group comparisons revealed significantly reduced WM integrity in prenatally exposed children, with an overall reduction in fractional anisotropy and neurite density and higher mean diffusivity and radial diffusivity. Furthermore, mixed linear model regressions revealed that prenatal marijuana exposure was significantly associated with decreased WM microstructure, predominantly in the superior corticostriate tract and corticostriate projections via the external capsule to the superior parietal and frontal cortices and with reduced cortical surface area in the left hemisphere parahippocampal and right hemisphere postcentral gyri.
conclusionsOverall, our findings suggest that prenatal exposure to marijuana may result in long-lasting alterations in children's brain neurodevelopment. These alterations may impair critical skills needed as children grow into adolescence.
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