EEG, cognitive and psychopathological abnormalities in children irradiated in utero

• Published in: International journal of psychophysiology 1999-12, Vol.34 (3), p.213-224
• Main Authors: Loganovskaja, Tatiana K., Loganovsky, Konstantin N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age Factors; Biological and medical sciences; Brain damage in utero; Brain laterality; Chernobyl accident; Child; Child clinical studies; Cognitive functions; Computerised EEG; Electroencephalography - radiation effects; Female; Functional Laterality; Humans; Intelligence - radiation effects; Intelligence Tests - statistics & numerical data; Male; Medical sciences; Mental Disorders - diagnosis; Mental Disorders - pathology; Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data; Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology; Pregnancy; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; Prenatal irradiation; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Random Allocation
• ISSN: 0167-8760; 1872-7697
• DOI: 10.1016/S0167-8760(99)00079-3

Computerised EEG, a clinical neuropsychiatric examination, and IQ tests were examined in 50 randomly selected prenatally irradiated 9–10-year-old children and compared with 50 randomly selected non-exposed control children of the same age. In the prenatally irradiated children a disorganised EEG-pattern with slow and paroxysmal activity (acute and high-voltage δ-waves, sometimes: spike-waves) in the left fronto-temporal region was disclosed. There was also a significant predominance of δ- and β (dominant frequency: 20 Hz)-power in the frontal lobe, particularly, in the left fronto-temporal region, together with depressed spectral θ-power. The more disorganised EEG-patterns were observed in those children exposed at 8–15 weeks of prenatal development, while left-hemisphere abnormalities were more typical for those exposed later at 16–25 weeks of gestation. There was also a significant increase of borderline and low range (70–90) IQ scores and a significant decrease of high verbal (>110) IQ scores. Disorders of psychological development, particularly specific developmental disorders of speech, language, and scholastic skills were more common and correlated with left-sided slow- and fast-wave activity. Behavioural and emotional disorders (social estrangement, exhaustion, emotional lability, tearfulness, apathy) were also more common and associated with a L>R imbalance in arousal. We hypothesise that the cerebral basis of mental disorders in the prenatally irradiated children is the malfunction of the left hemisphere limbic-reticular structures, particularly in those exposed at the most critical period of cerebrogenesis (16–25 weeks of gestation). We propose that the left hemisphere is more vulnerable to prenatal irradiation than the right.