Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2007 Apr;115(4):623-9.
doi: 10.1289/ehp.9521. Epub 2006 Nov 28.

Smoking during pregnancy affects speech-processing ability in newborn infants

Alexandra P F Key  1 , Melissa Ferguson, Dennis L Molfese, Kelley Peach, Casey Lehman, Victoria J Molfese
Affiliations

Smoking during pregnancy affects speech-processing ability in newborn infants

Alexandra P F Key et al. Environ Health Perspect. 2007 Apr.

Abstract

Background: Tobacco smoking during pregnancy is known to adversely affect development of the central nervous system in babies of smoking mothers by restricting utero-placental blood flow and the amount of oxygen available to the fetus. Behavioral data associate maternal smoking with lower verbal scores and poorer performance on specific language/auditory tests.

Objectives: In the current study we examined the effects of maternal smoking during pregnancy on newborns' speech processing ability as measured by event-related potentials (ERPs).

Method: High-density ERPs were recorded within 48 hr of birth in healthy newborn infants of smoking (n = 8) and nonsmoking (n = 8) mothers. Participating infants were matched on sex, gestational age, birth weight, Apgar scores, mother's education, and family income. Smoking during pregnancy was determined by parental self-report and medical records. ERPs were recorded in response to six consonant-vowel syllables presented in random order with equal probability.

Results: Brainwaves of babies of nonsmoking mothers were characterized by typical hemisphere asymmetries, with larger amplitudes over the left hemisphere, especially over temporal regions. Further, infants of nonsmokers discriminated among a greater number of syllables whereas the newborns of smokers began the discrimination process at least 150 msec later and differentiated among fewer stimuli.

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke in otherwise healthy babies is linked with significant changes in brain physiology associated with basic perceptual skills that could place the infant at risk for later developmental problems.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Electrode layout for the 128-channel geodesic sensor net and the channel groups used in the analysis. Abbreviations: com, common; LM, left mastoid; RM, right mastoid.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Left posterior temporal ERP differences for consonant sounds for babies of nonsmoking (A) and smoking (B) mothers. The black box marks the specific time period.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Right posterior temporal ERP differences for vowel (A, B) and consonant (C, D) sounds for babies of nonsmoking (A, C) and smoking (B, D) mothers. The black box marks the specific time period.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Environmental Health. Environmental tobacco smoke: a hazard to children. Pediatrics. 1997;99:639–642. - PubMed
    1. Batstra L, Hadders-Algra M, Neeleman J. Effect of antenatal exposure to maternal smoking on behavioural problems and academic achievement in childhood: prospective evidence from a Dutch birth cohort. Early Hum Dev. 2003a;75(1–2):21–33. - PubMed
    1. Batstra L, Neeleman J, Hadders-Algra M. Can breast feeding modify the adverse effects of smoking during pregnancy on the child’s cognitive development? J Epidemiol Community Health. 2003b;57(6):403–404. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bauman KE, Flewelling RL, LaPrelle J. Parental cigarette smoking and cognitive performance of children. Health Psychol. 1991;10(4):282–288. - PubMed
    1. Beauducel A, Debener S. Misallocation of variance in event-related potentials: simulation studies on the effects of test power, topography, and baseline-to-peak versus principal component quantifications. J Neurosci Methods. 2003;124(1):103–112. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources