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Implications of legacy lead for children’s brain development

Nature Medicine volume 26, pages 23–25 (2020)Cite this article

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Children at a higher risk of lead exposure develop smaller brain cortical surface area and volume, but only if they are from low-income families.

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Fig. 1: Timeline of consumption of lead in gasoline in the USA and mean population blood-lead levels across the past 100 years.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Aaron Reuben, Maxwell Elliott & Avshalom Caspi

  2. Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA

    Avshalom Caspi

  3. Center for Genomic and Computational Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Avshalom Caspi

  4. Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK

    Avshalom Caspi

Authors
  1. Aaron Reuben
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  2. Maxwell Elliott
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  3. Avshalom Caspi
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Correspondence to Avshalom Caspi.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Reuben, A., Elliott, M. & Caspi, A. Implications of legacy lead for children’s brain development. Nat Med 26, 23–25 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0731-9

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