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BACKGROUND: Omega-3 fatty acids are critical for neuropsychological functioning. Adolescence is increasingly believed to entail brain vulnerability to dietary intake. The potential benefit on adolescent neurodevelopment of consuming walnuts, a source of omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), remains unclear. METHODS: We conducted a 6-month multi-school-based randomised controlled nutrition intervention trial to assess whether walnut consumption has beneficial effects on the neuropsychological and behavioural development of adolescents. The study took place between 04/01/2016 and 06/30/2017 in twelve different high schools in Barcelona, Spain (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02590848). A total of 771 healthy teenagers aged 11–16 years were randomised into two equal groups (intervention or control). The intervention group received 30 g/day of raw walnut kernels to be incorporated into their diet for 6 months. Multiple primary endpoints concerning neuropsychological (working memory, attention, fluid intelligence, and executive function) and behavioural (socio-emotional and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD] symptoms) development were assessed at baseline and after intervention. Red blood cell (RBC) ALA status was determined at baseline and 6 months as a measure of compliance. Main analyses were based on intention-to-treat using a linear mixed-effects model. A per-protocol effect of the intervention was analysed using inverse-probability weighting to account for post-randomisation prognostic factors (including adherence) using generalised estimating equations. FINDINGS: In intention-to-treat analyses, at 6 months there were no statistically significant changes between the intervention and control groups for all primary endpoints. RBC ALA (%) significantly increased only in the intervention group, coefficient = 0.04 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 0.03, 0.06; p

BackgroundFunctional connectivity has been associated with psychiatric problems, both in children and adults, but inconsistencies are present across studies. Prior research has mostly focused on small clinical samples with cross-sectional designs.MethodsWe adopted a longitudinal design with repeated assessments to investigate associations between functional network connectivity (FNC) and psychiatric problems in youth (9- to 17-year-olds) from the general population. The largest single-site study of pediatric neurodevelopment was used: Generation R (N= 3,131). Psychiatric symptoms were measured with the Child Behavioral Checklist as broadband internalizing and externalizing problems, and its eight specific syndrome scales (e.g., anxious-depressed). FNC was assessed with two complementary approaches. First, static FNC (sFNC) was measured with graph theory-based metrics. Second, dynamic FNC (dFNC), where connectivity is allowed to vary over time, was summarized into 5 states that participants spent time in. Cross-lagged panel models were used to investigate the longitudinal bidirectional relationships of sFNC with internalizing and externalizing problems. Similar cross-lagged panel models were run for dFNC.ResultsSmall longitudinal relationships between dFNC and certain syndrome scales were observed, especially for baseline syndrome scales (i.e., rule-breaking, somatic complaints, thought problems, and attention problems) predicting connectivity changes. However, no association between any of the psychiatric problems (broadband and syndrome scales) with either measure of FNC survived correction for multiple testing.ConclusionWe found no or very modest evidence for longitudinal associations between psychiatric problems with dynamic and static FNC in this population-based sample. Differences in findings may stem from the population drawn, study design, developmental timing and sample sizes.

Background: The amount of people affected by traffic-related air pollution and noise is continuously increasing, but limited research has been conducted on the association between these environmental exposures and functional brain connectivity in children. Objective: This exploratory study aimed to analyze the associations between the exposure to traffic-related air pollution and noise during pregnancy and childhood, and functional brain connectivity amongst a wide-swath of brain areas in preadolescents from 9 to 12 years of age. Methods: We used data of 2,197 children from the Generation R Study. Land use regression models were applied to estimate nitrogen oxides and particulate matter levels at participant's homes for several time periods: pregnancy, birth to 3 years, 3 to 6 years, and 6 years of age to the age at magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessment. Existing noise maps were used to estimate road traffic noise exposure at participant's homes for the same time periods. Resting-state functional MRI was obtained at 9-12 years of age. Pair-wise correlation coefficients of the blood-oxygen-level-dependent signals between 380 brain areas were calculated. Linear regressions were run and corrected for multiple testing. Results: Preadolescents exposed to higher levels of NO2, NOx, and PM2.5 absorbance, from birth to 3 years, and from 3 to 6 years of age showed higher correlation coefficients among several brain regions (e.g. from 0.16 to 0.19 higher correlation coefficient related to PM2.5 absorbance exposure, depending on the brain connection). Overall, most identified associations were between brain regions of the task positive and task negative networks, and were mainly inter-network (20 of 26). Slightly more than half of the connections were intra-hemispheric (14 of 26), predominantly in the right hemisphere. Road traffic noise was not associated with functional brain connectivity. Conclusions: This exploratory study found that exposure to traffic-related air pollution during the first years of life was related to higher functional brain connectivity predominantly in brain areas located in the task positive and task negative networks, in preadolescents from 9 to 12 years of age. These results could be an indicator of differential functional connectivity in children exposed to higher levels of air pollution. Air pollution exposure assessment was possible by funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program (GA#211250, GA#243406). In addition, the study was made possible by financial support from the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMW Geestkracht Program 10.000.1003 & ZonMw TOP 40–00812-98–11021). The neuroimaging and neuroimaging infrastructure was funded via TOP project number 91,211,021 to Tonya White and and Sophia Foundation S18-20 awarded to Ryan Muetzel. Supercomputing computations for imaging processing were supported by the NWO Physical Sciences Division (Exacte Wetenschappen) and SURFsara (Cartesius compute cluster, https://www.surfsara.nl). Mònica Guxens received funding from the Spanish Institute of Health Carlos III (CPII18/00018, PI17/01340). Henning Tiemeier received funding from the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (NWO-grant 016.VICI.170.200). Maria Foraster is a beneficiary of an AXA Research Fund grant. Mónica López-Vicente was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 707404.

Objective To evaluate the role of extracurricular physical activity and sedentary behavior at preschool and primary school age on working memory at primary school age and adolescence, respectively. Study design This prospective study was based on a birth cohort across 4 Spanish regions. In the 3 younger subcohorts (n = 1093), parents reported lifestyle habits of child at age 4 years of age on a questionnaire, and children performed a computerized working memory task at 7 years of age. In the older subcohort (n = 307), the questionnaire was completed at 6 years of age and working memory was tested at 14 years of age. Adjusted regression models were developed to investigate the associations between lifestyle habits and working memory. Results Low extracurricular physical activity levels at 4 years of age were associated with a nonsignificant 0.95% (95% CI −2.81 to 0.92) reduction of correct responses in the working memory task at age 7 years of age. Low extracurricular physical activity levels at 6 years of age were associated with a 4.22% (95% CI −8.05 to −0.39) reduction of correct responses at age 14 years. Television watching was not associated with working memory. Other sedentary behaviors at 6 year of age were associated with a 5.07% (95% CI −9.68 to −0.46) reduction of correct responses in boys at 14 years of age. Conclusion Low extracurricular physical activity levels at preschool and primary school ages were associated with poorer working memory performance at primary school age and adolescence, respectively. High sedentary behavior levels at primary school age were related negatively to working memory in adolescent boys.