Exposure to Nicotine During Development (at pregnancy) Results to (the born child's) Cognitive Hearing Deficits

Filed in archive Cases , Studies on July 22, 2006

I used to smoke but when I was pregnant was the longest time in my smoking life that I didn't smoke. The moment I found out I was pregnant, I knew that my body wasn't my own anymore and so I didn't think twice about not smoking, not drinking coffee and some other stuff that a pregnant woman is not allowed to take in and do, for the baby's healthy sake.

I don't want to know first hand what smoking would do to an unborn child, hearing about it was enough. Giving birth to an ugly, wrinkled, old-looking baby was a scary thought.

Now scientists know that children of women who smoke during pregnancy can develop hearing-related cognitive deficits. The researchers believe they have strong evidence that not only implicates nicotine as the culprit, but also shows what this nasty substance does to the brain to cause these deficits.

In a rat study of a team from UC Irvine headed by Raju Metherate (associate professor of neurobiology and behavior), showed that nicotine exposure during the equivalent of a human's third trimester led to hearing-related cognitive problems.

The probable cause of the deficits being the damage to the receptors in the brain that are sensitive to nicotine, which seems to occur when humans or animals are exposed to the substance during development.

"This study is significant because it suggests to us precisely what aspect of smoking is so harmful in pregnancy when it comes to cognitive hearing deficits," Metherate said. "Most women who smoke find it difficult to quit during pregnancy.

For them, doctors often prescribe a nicotine patch. While that does protect the fetus from the well-known physical under-development related to harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke, exposure to nicotine appears to be enough to cause serious problems on its own, in terms of brain development."

Even without this new finding, pregnant women should really NOT smoke.

This study appears last week in the early online issue of the European Journal of Neuroscience.

Read more at UCI News.