ArticleEnvironmental research2025
Early life phthalate exposure impacts gray matter and white matter volume in infants and young children.
Article in Environmental research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Deciphering the neurotoxic effects of emerging pollutants: Bisphenols and phthalates as disruptors of brain function and mental health.iScience · 2026Review
- From cradle to cortex: An exposome- and equity-centered perspective of neurocognitive aging and dementia risk in the era of climate change.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Review
- Early life phthalate and replacement plasticizer exposures and changes in early childhood brain functional connectivity and structural morphology.Environment international · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
- Update of
Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivePrenatal phthalate exposure is associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes, yet data on impacts of early life exposure remains limited. We investigated phthalate and replacement plasticizer exposures from 2 weeks to 7 years of age in relation to brain anatomical attributes, using serial structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI). MATERIAL AND
methodsChildren were enrolled after birth into the UNC Baby Connectome Project, a longitudinal neuroimaging study (North Carolina, USA; 2017-2020). Urine samples (n = 406) were collected at each visit and analyzed for 17 phthalate and replacement plasticizer metabolites. Among 157 children contributing 369 sMRIs, we calculated metabolite-specific average exposures across each individual's urine samples and used linear mixed models to estimate longitudinal associations of log transformed, specific gravity-adjusted average metabolite concentrations with gray and white matter volume, and cortical volume, thickness, and surface area. We examined sex-specific differences in these associations.
resultsHigher average metabolite concentration was associated with lower gray matter volume (MCPP: (-1.73 cm
conclusionEarly life phthalate/plasticizer exposure may differentially impact various brain region volumes in early childhood, with potential downstream consequences on functional development.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.