Prenatal metal mixture concentrations and reward motivation in children Show others and affiliations
2022 (English) In: Neurotoxicology, ISSN 0161-813X, E-ISSN 1872-9711, Vol. 88, p. 124-133Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Reward motivation is a complex umbrella term encompassing the cognitions, emotions, and behaviors involved in the activation, execution, and persistence of goal-directed behavior. Altered reward motivation in children is characteristic of many neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. Previously difficult to operationalize, the Progressive Ratio (PR) task has been widely used to assess reward motivation in animal and human studies, including children. Because the neural circuitry supporting reward motivation starts developing during pregnancy, and is sensitive to disruption by environmental toxicants, including metals, the goal of this study was to examine the association between prenatal concentrations of a mixture of neurotoxic metals and reward motivation in children. We measured reward motivation by administering a PR test to 373 children ages 6–8 years enrolled in the Programming Research in Obesity, Growth, Environment and Social Stressors (PROGRESS) Study in Mexico City. Children were asked to press a response lever for a token reward; one press on the response lever was required to earn the first token and each subsequent token required an additional 10 lever presses. Maternal blood concentrations of lead, manganese, zinc, arsenic, cadmium, and selenium were measured using inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry during the 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy. We performed generalized Weighted Quantile Sum (gWQS) regression analyses to examine associations between the prenatal metal mixture and reward motivation; adjusting for child sex, birthweight and age; and maternal IQ, education, and socioeconomic status. The prenatal metal mixture was significantly associated with higher motivation as indicated by more lever presses (ß = 0.02, p < 0.001) and a shorter time between receiving the reinforcer and the first press (ß = 0.23, p = 0.01), and between subsequent presses (ß = 0.07, p = 0.005). Contributions of different metals to this association differed by trimester and child sex. These findings suggest that children with increased exposure to metal during the 2nd and 3rd trimesters of gestation demonstrate increased reward motivation, which may reflect a tendency to perseverate or hypersensitivity to positive reinforcement.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages Elsevier, 2022. Vol. 88, p. 124-133
Keywords [en]
Children, Metals, Pregnancy, Progressive ratio, Reward motivation, arsenic, cadmium, lead, manganese, metal, selenium, zinc, age, Article, birth weight, child, educational status, female, gender, human, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, intelligence quotient, male, maternal blood, Mexico, motivation, prenatal period, reinforcement (psychology), reward, second trimester pregnancy, social status, third trimester pregnancy, toxic concentration
National Category
Health Sciences
Research subject Public Health Science
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-88884 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuro.2021.11.008 ISI: 000721607800009 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85119202673 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-88884 DiVA, id: diva2:1641223
2022-03-012022-03-012022-11-07 Bibliographically approved