Structural brain differences found in kids who experienced prenatal Superstorm Sandy exposure

(Press-News.org) In a study of 34 children, the volumes of part of the brain known as the basal ganglia differed significantly between children whose parents were pregnant with them during Superstorm Sandy versus children without prenatal Sandy exposure. Donato DeIngeniis of Queens College, City University of New York, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on June 11, 2025.

Prior research suggests that prenatal exposure to stressors, such as extreme weather, may disrupt neurodevelopment and lead to morphological differences in children’s brains—including basal ganglia volume differences. The basal ganglia is involved in motor ability and possibly also functions such as emotion regulation. Climate change is predicted to make extreme weather and natural disasters more frequent and intense, raising concerns about their prenatal effects.

However, research on this topic has been limited with inconsistent results. To help clarify, DeIngeniis and colleagues used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure basal ganglia volume in 34 8-year-olds in the New York City area. While pregnant, the parents of 11 of the children had experienced Superstorm Sandy, one of the most devastating storms in U.S. history, which hit New York in October 2012 and may have been intensified by climate change.

Statistical analysis of the MRI data showed that, relative to the 23 non-exposed children, the 11 with prenatal Sandy exposure had significantly larger volume on both sides of the brain in parts of the basal ganglia known as the putamen and pallidum, as well as in the caudate on the right side only.

The researchers also investigated potential effects of prenatal exposure to extreme heat. They found that, on its own, extreme heat was not associated with any significant basal ganglia volume differences. However, extreme heat appeared to amplify the basal ganglia effects of prenatal Sandy exposure; children whose parents experienced extreme heat while pregnant during the storm had a smaller left nucleus accumbens and a larger left pallidum.

The study examined quite a small sample of children, and did not examine any functional impact of the structural differences observed. However, additional research could further deepen understanding, such as by investigating possible behavioral effects of the observed volume differences. Meanwhile, the researchers call for efforts to combat climate change and to alert pregnant people to the possible risks of prenatal exposure to extreme climate events.

Lead author Donato DeIngeniis, a research lead in neuroimaging at the Stress in Pregnancy (SIP) study at Queens College and a neuropsychology Ph.D. student at the CUNY Graduate Center, adds: “Despite never personally experiencing these climate events, we are seeing how climate change may be fundamentally altering children’s brain development while they are still in the womb. Among the children exposed to Superstorm Sandy in the womb, neuroimaging revealed significantly larger volume in various basal ganglia regions, an area of the brain that is critical for regulating not just movement but also emotions and behaviors. The noticeable increase in children’s brain volume could potentially lead to future behavioral disorders.”

“To our knowledge, no prior work has examined how exposure to multiple climate-related stressors during pregnancy might work together to shape children’s developing brains. Our work helps fill this important knowledge gap.”

Professor Yoko Nomura, Principal Investigator of the SIP Study and psychology professor at CUNY Queens College, adds: “The combination of storm stress and extreme heat created profound disruptions to the children’s developing brains. We saw significant changes in brain volume among children born to mothers exposed to both Superstorm Sandy and extreme heat during pregnancy. While extreme heat exposure alone did not show significant impacts, it amplified the effects of Superstorm Sandy exposure on child brain development when both occurred during pregnancy.”

Dr. Ahmed Duke Shereen, director of the neuroimaging facility at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center and a co-author on the study, emphasized the long-term implications behind the findings: "These imaging methods enable us to observe how environmental stressors can cascade through a pregnant mother’s experience to reshape the structure of a child’s developing brain. Our findings provide us with compelling evidence that the climate crisis is not merely an environmental crisis—it is a potentially neurological one with consequences for future generations who will inherit our planet.” 

 

 

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4505HpQ

Citation: DeIngeniis D, Blum M, Lee RM, Shereen AD, Nomura Y (2025) Prenatal exposure to extreme ambient heat may amplify the adverse impact of Superstorm Sandy on basal ganglia volume among school-aged children. PLoS One 20(6): e0324150. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0324150

Author countries: U.S.

Funding: This research was supported by PSC-CUNY (90922-08-09, PI: YN) and the NIMH (R01MH13638, PI: YN). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

END