Yay @lindenmp.bsky.social and @valeriejsydnor.bsky.social!!! So well deserved! 🎉

Thanks Ted!! 😊

Thanks for your awesome work on this project Corey!! :)

Huge thank you to our amazing team of co-authors: Yihe Weng,
@heatherarobinson.bsky.social, @lester-rodriguez.bsky.social, Marzieh Babaeianjelodar, Joliza Maynard, Menessa Metayer, Suhani Suneja, @coreyhorien.bsky.social, Abigail S. Greene, @toddc.bsky.social, Tyler M. Moore and Ran Barzilay /10

These results suggest that differences in functional connections in the brain might be a potential mechanism linking differences in the environment with differences in cognitive performance, something that we’ll be looking at in future longitudinal timepoints of the ABCD Study! /9

But how does this “exposome network” relate to important developmental outcomes, like cognitive functioning? We found that variation in the exposome network across kids was associated with variation in cognitive task performance across multiple domains of cognition. /8

Using cross-validation, we found consistent results across subgroups of children. This means we can tell what a child’s environment might be like just by looking at the functional connections in their brain! Our predictions were most accurate in cities with greater variability in the exposome. /7

This “general exposome network” was robust – we found similar brain regions were included in this network across different scans, when the participants were performing different cognitive tasks or resting quietly. /6

This procedure helped us identify a consistent “general exposome network” in the child brain, which drew its connections from many large-scale brain networks involved in a variety of functions. /5

We then looked at how these functional connections related to a previously-defined “exposome” score for each child, reflecting variation in 354 environmental features that included child-reports, parent-reports, and geocoded data from the child’s home address. /4

To test this, we identified functional connections across the entire brain from MRI scans in thousands of children. These brain scans were taken during cognitive task performance as well as during quiet rest, as part of the large-scale Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. /3

Our previous work showed that the exposome is reflected in the spatial organization of functionally-interconnected brain networks and variation in cognition. But how does variation in the functional connections themselves may reflect the external environment? /2
tinyurl.com/exposomeTopography

Our environments consist of many co-occurring features: physical/chemical exposures, psychosocial experiences, socioeconomic resources, and sociocultural context. All these features collectively (the “exposome”) may shape child brain development and cognition – but how? /1
tinyurl.com/exposomeReview

Way to go Matt and team!!! 🎉🎉🎉

Incredible work - congratulations!!