Impact of Pesticide Exposure on Cognition in Children

Overview

Specific Aim 1

One objective of the proposed research is to examine the impact of chronic routine exposure to pesticides on cognitive and motor performance in children between 7 and 12 years of age. The specific areas tested will be memory performance, executive function performance, motor performance, and performance on school-related achievement tests.

• Hypothesis 1: Those children living near an active farm will perform significantly worse on memory performance, executive function performance, psychomotor performance, and performance on school-related achievement tests than children living farther away from an active farm.
• Hypothesis 2: Those children living near an active farm will perform significantly worse on psychomotor performance than children living farther away from an active farm.
• Hypothesis 3: Those children living near an active farm will perform significantly worse on school-related achievement tests than children living farther away from an active farm.

Specific Aim 2

The proposed research will also measure concentrations of several pesticides, cholinesterase and lead in the blood or urine in a sample of children between 7 and 12 years of age. Pesticides are heavily applied in farming areas of the northeast quadrant of North Dakota where the participants will be recruited. In addition, blood will be assessed for concentrations of trace minerals and the parents will complete a dietary intake questionnaire and the core food security module.

• Hypothesis 1: Those children living near an active farm will have greater levels of the measured pesticides in biological samples than those children living farther away from an active farm.
• Hypothesis 2: The level of pesticides and cholinesterase measured in the biological samples will be negatively correlated with memory performance, executive function performance, psychomotor performance, and performance on school-related achievement tests, that is to say higher levels of pesticides and cholinesterase will be associated with worse performance on tests of memory, executive function, psychomotor and school related activities.
• Hypothesis 3: The nutritional status of the children as determined by trace mineral analysis of the blood sample, dietary questionnaire, and food security module will modulate the effects of pesticides on memory performance, executive function performance, psychomotor performance, and performance on school-related achievement tests.