A study conducted by the Global Health Institute (Isglobal) in Barcelona, a center promoted by the La Caixa Foundation and Idibell of L’AlpospelT de Llobregat (Barcelona) has found that exposure to high temperatures is associated with lower connectivity in three brain networks in preadolescents, suggesting that heat may have an impact.
The paper, published in the «Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,» was a collaboration between the Erasmus Medical Center at the University of Rotterdam (Erasmus MC) in the Netherlands and the Biomedical Research Network, as reported by Isglobal in a statement on Thursday.
The study involved 2,229 children aged 9 to 12 in the Rotterdam generation cohort, of which functional connectivity data of the brain networks were evaluated as brain regions communicate from magnetic resonance imaging.
Daily estimates of average daily temperature were obtained from the urban urban urban model developed by the Flamenco Institute of Technological Research, using daily average values for the period 2013-2015.
Higher ambient temperature during the week prior to the magnetic resonance evaluation was associated with lower functional connectivity in medial parietal, relevance, and hippocampal networks, essential for proper brain function.
This implies that brain areas could function less synchronized, affecting processes such as attention, memory, and decision-making.
The results indicate that the association between high temperatures and lower functional connectivity was more intense one day before the brain scan and gradually decreased in the following days, while low temperatures were not related to functional connectivity.
Idibell researcher and lead author of the study, Laura Granés, suggested that dehydration could explain the results, as children are «particularly sensitive» to fluid loss when exposed to heat.
The same research team revealed in another study that exposure to both cold and heat can influence psychiatric anxiety, depression, and attention, and other studies have linked reduced connectivity in the default mode network with suicidal ideation and self-control behaviors.
«High temperatures could reduce the functional connectivity of this network, indirectly contributing to a higher risk of suicide in individuals with preexisting mental health issues,» concludes Idibell and University of Barcelona researcher and study co-author, Carles Soriano-Mas.
