ArticleeLife2024
Fetal influence on the human brain through the lifespan.
Article in eLife, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations of Birth Size with Physical and Cognitive Function in Men and Women 60 Years and Older-Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2025Pooled it
- Early‑life head circumference is causally associated with adult executive function through cortical surface area expansion.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Perinatal Factors and Neuroimaging Changes for Brain Maturation Among Adolescents.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Prenatal and early-life determinants of neurodevelopment: A decade of discoveries and new directions in ABCD.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Review
- The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study: Ten years of statistical and methodological contributions.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Linking pregnancy- and birth-related risk factors to a multivariate fusion of child cortical structure.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Rate of brain aging associates with future executive function in Asian children and older adults.eLife · 2025Article
- Linking Pregnancy- and Birth-Related Risk Factors to a Multivariate Fusion of Child Cortical Structure.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Association and shared biological bases between birth weight and cortical structure.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Reliability of structural brain change in cognitively healthy adult samples.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Reliability of structural brain change in cognitively healthy adult samples.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- Cortical Surface Area Profile Mediates Effects of Childhood Disadvantage on Later-Life General Cognitive Ability.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2024Article
- Differences in cognitive function at 18 y of age explain the association between low education and early dementia risk.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Genetic and brain similarity independently predict childhood anthropometrics and neighborhood socioeconomic conditions.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2024Article
- Very Early-Life Risk Factors for Developing Dementia: Evidence From Full Population Registers.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Human fetal development has been associated with brain health at later stages. It is unknown whether growth in utero, as indexed by birth weight (BW), relates consistently to lifespan brain characteristics and changes, and to what extent these influences are of a genetic or environmental nature. Here we show remarkably stable and lifelong positive associations between BW and cortical surface area and volume across and within developmental, aging and lifespan longitudinal samples (N = 5794, 4-82 y of age, w/386 monozygotic twins, followed for up to 8.3 y w/12,088 brain MRIs). In contrast, no consistent effect of BW on brain changes was observed. Partly environmental effects were indicated by analysis of twin BW discordance. In conclusion, the influence of prenatal growth on cortical topography is stable and reliable through the lifespan. This early-life factor appears to influence the brain by association of brain reserve, rather than brain maintenance. Thus, fetal influences appear omnipresent in the spacetime of the human brain throughout the human lifespan. Optimizing fetal growth may increase brain reserve for life, also in aging.
Indexed as
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What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.