Prediction of individual season of birth using MRI

An epidemiological study of season of birth, mental health, and neuroimaging in the UK Biobank

Environmental exposures during the perinatal period are known to have a long-term effect on adult physical and mental health. One such influential environmental exposure is the time of year of birth which affects the amount of daylight, nutrients, and viral load that an individual is exposed to within this key developmental period. Here, we investigate associations between season of birth (seasonality), four mental health traits (n = 137,588) and multi-modal neuroimaging measures (n = 33,212) within the UK Biobank. Summer births were associated with probable recurrent Major Depressive Disorder (β = 0.026, pcorr = 0.028) and greater mean cortical thickness in temporal and occipital lobes (β = 0.013 to 0.014, pcorr<0.05). Winter births were associated with greater white matter integrity globally, in the association fibers, thalamic radiations, and six individual tracts (β = -0.013 to -0.022, pcorr<0.05). Results of sensitivity analyses adjusting for birth weight were similar, with an additional association between winter birth and white matter microstructure in the forceps minor and between summer births, greater cingulate thickness and amygdala volume. Further analyses revealed associations between probable depressive phenotypes and a range of neuroimaging measures but a paucity of interactions with seasonality. Our results suggest that seasonality of birth may affect later-life brain structure and play a role in lifetime recurrent Major Depressive Disorder. Due to the small effect sizes observed, and the lack of associations with other mental health traits, further research is required to validate birth season effects in the context of different latitudes, and by co-examining genetic and epigenetic measures to reveal informative biological pathways.

Vitamin D supplementation and gross motor development: A 3-year follow-up of a randomized trial

BACKGROUND

Vitamin D status during pregnancy, early childhood and season-at-birth are implicated in gross motor development (GMD).

AIM

To test whether vitamin D intake in infancy and season-at-birth affect GMD in early childhood.

STUDY DESIGN

3-year follow up study of a single-center trial.

SUBJECTS

Healthy infants (n = 116) were allocated to 400 (standard-of-care), 800 or 1200 IU/day of vitamin D3 supplementation from 1 to 12 months; n = 70 returned for follow-up at 3-years.

OUTCOME MEASURES

The main outcome was GMD using the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2 which includes gross motor quotient (GMQ) and stationary, locomotion and object manipulation subtests.

RESULTS

GMQ scores were normal (≥85) in 94 %. An interaction between dosage group and season-at-birth (p = 0.01) was observed for GMQ and stationary standardized score; among winter/spring born children, the 1200 IU/d scored higher vs. 400 and 800 IU/d groups. Object manipulation standardized score was higher (p = 0.04) in children in the 1200 vs. 400 IU/d group, without interaction with season-at-birth.

CONCLUSIONS

GMD in young children who received 400 IU/d of supplemental vitamin D in infancy is not influenced by season-at-birth. This dose of vitamin D of 400 IU/d as recommended in North America adequately supports GMD. The modest enhancement in GMD with 1200 IU/d in winter/spring born children requires further study.

Seasonal differences in breastfeeding in the United States: a secondary analysis of longitudinal survey data

BACKGROUND

Both the consumption of breastmilk in infancy and a person's season of birth influences his or her health, educational, professional, and behavioral outcomes. Further, season of birth effects differ by sex. However, current research, for the most part, neglects to examine if season of birth and breastfeeding are related. This paper examines the impact of sex-based variations in season of birth on breastfeeding likelihood and duration in the U.S.

METHODS

Using data from children born to female respondents of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (born between 1970 and 2012), this study examines with Probit, Negative Binomial, and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions if a child's season of birth and sex are correlated with breastfeeding incidence and duration. The breastfeeding incidence and duration data are self-reported by the mother.

RESULTS

Season of birth has a small but statistically significant impact on the incidence and duration of breastfeeding, which varies depending on the sex of the infant. Mothers giving birth to sons in the spring are 13.5% less likely to breastfeed than those giving birth to sons in the winter (with a p - value of 0.0269). Mothers with daughters born in the summer or fall (autumn) breastfeed slightly longer than mothers with daughters born in the spring. On average, mothers of summer-born daughters breastfeed 4.1% longer (with a 95% confidence interval of 0.3 - 7.8) and those with fall-born daughters 3.8% longer (with a 95% confidence interval of 0 - 7.5). Mothers giving birth to daughters in the spring are also significantly less likely to reach the breastfeeding six-week duration target (compared to fall and winter births) and the one-year duration target (compared to fall births).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that the costs and benefits of breastfeeding an infant vary with the season of birth and the sex of the child. This finding could explain some of the season of birth effects previously identified in the literature. Further, policymakers seeking to increase breastfeeding rates should consider the reduced breastfeeding rates and durations for children born in the spring.

The month of birth has a seasonal effect in Chinese patients with narcolepsy and cataplexy

STUDY OBJECTIVES

We assessed the yearly seasonal, environmental effects on birth pattern in Chinese patients later diagnosed with narcolepsy and cataplexy and explored if this effect persisted in patients with symptoms onset date before, following, and after the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.

METHODS

A total of 1,942 patients with birth data information and diagnosed narcolepsy with cataplexy were included in this study. The birth month and seasonal effect of 1,064 patients born from 1970 to 2000 were compared to controls (n = 2,028,714) from the general population. Furthermore, birth season effect in 1,373 patients with definite disease onset month were compared among patients with onset date before (n = 595), following (from January 2010 to December 2010) (n = 325), and after (n = 453) the H1N1 pandemic.

RESULTS

Patients with narcolepsy and cataplexy had a significantly different seasonality from the general population (P = .027). The monthly distribution of birth month yielded a peak in November (odds ratio = 1.23 [95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.49], P = .042) and a trough in April (odds ratio = 0.68 [95% confidence interval, 0.52-0.88], P = .004). No significant difference was observed in the birth month across patients with symptom onset dates before, following, and after the 2009 H1N1 pandemic (P = .603).

CONCLUSIONS

This finding across many years of seasonal effect in Chinese narcolepsy cataplexy supports a role for early-life environmental influences on disease development.

CITATION

Guo J, Xu L, Wang J, et al. The month of birth has a seasonal effect in Chinese patients with narcolepsy and cataplexy. J Clin Sleep Med. 2022;18(2):461-467.

Association Between Season of Birth and Cognitive Aging in Older Adults: Pan-European Population-Based Study on 70,000 Individuals

BACKGROUND

Several early-life factors have been associated with higher risk of developing dementia. It is unclear whether season of birth (SOB) can affect cognitive aging in older adults or not.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to study the association of SOB with the level of cognitive performance as well as with the rate of cognitive decline.

METHODS

We studied 70,203 individuals who participated in the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe. Cognition was measured with tests on verbal fluency and immediate and delayed recall. We assessed the association of SOB with the level of cognitive performance using multiple linear regression and with the rate of cognitive decline using linear mixed-effects models.

RESULTS

When compared to individuals born in winter and adjusted for sociodemographic and health-related characteristics, being born in summer was associated with a higher level of delayed recall (B 0.05; 95%CI 0.01 to 0.09) and verbal fluency (B 0.15; 95%CI 0.00 to 0.29) and being born in fall with a higher level of immediate recall (B 0.04; 95%CI 0.01 to 0.08) and verbal fluency (B 0.15; 95%CI 0.01 to 0.29). Individuals born in summer had a higher yearly decline in delayed recall (B -0.005; 95%CI -0.009 to 0.000), while the scores in delayed recall in participants born in spring showed an inverse trend (B 0.005; 95%CI 0.000 to 0.010).

CONCLUSION

Individuals born in winter seem to carry a life-long disadvantage in a lower level of cognitive performance; however, being born in winter does not seem to affect the rate of cognitive decline.

The effect of season of birth on brain epigenome-wide DNA methylation of older adults

Perinatal light exposure predisposes towards health and behaviour in adulthood. Season of birth is associated with psychiatric, allergic, cardiovascular and metabolic problems. It has been proposed that early-life environmental light disrupts the development of biological rhythms which, in turn, influence later-life health. However, the mechanisms linking perinatal seasonal light to later-life biological rhythm and health in humans are unknown. In this study, we investigated the association between season of birth and epigenome-wide DNA methylation of two postmortem human brain regions (16 hypothalamus, 14 temporal cortex). We did not find statistically significant differences at the whole epigenome level, either because we lacked statistical power or that no association exists. However, when we examined 24 CpG sites that had the highest significance or differential methylation, we identified regions which may be associated with circadian rhythm entrainment, cholinergic neurotransmission and neural development. Amongst methylation of the core clock genes, we identified that hypothalamus Neuronal PAS Domain Protein 2 (NPAS2) gene has hypermethylated regions in long photoperiod-born individuals. In addition, we found nominal associations between season of birth and genes linked to chronotype and narcolepsy. Season of birth-related brain DNA methylation profile was different than a previously reported blood methylation profile, suggesting a tissue-specific mechanism of perinatal light programming. Overall, we are the first to analyse the relationship between season of birth and human brain DNA methylation. Further studies with larger sample sizes are required to confirm an imprinting effect of perinatal light on the circadian clock.

Mapping individual voxel-wise morphological connectivity using wavelet transform of voxel-based morphology

Mapping individual brain networks has drawn significant research interest in recent years. Most individual brain networks developed to date have been based on fMRI or diffusion MRI. Given recent concerns regarding confounding artifacts, various preprocessing steps are generally included in functional or structural brain networks. Notably, voxel-based morphometry (VBM) derived from anatomical MRI exhibits high signal-to-noise ratios and has been applied to individual interregional morphological networks. To the best of our knowledge, individual voxel-wise morphological networks remain unexplored. The goal of this research is twofold: to build novel metrics for individual voxel-wise morphological networks and to test the reliability of the proposed morphological connectivity. To this end, anatomical scans of a cohort of healthy subjects were obtained from a public database. The anatomical datasets were preprocessed and normalized to the standard brain space. For each individual, wavelet-transform was applied on the VBM measures to obtain voxel-wise hierarchical features. The voxel-wise morphological connectivity was computed based on the wavelet features. Reliable brain hubs were detected by the z-scores of degree centrality. High reliability was discovered by test-retest analysis. No effects of wavelet scale, network threshold or network type were found on hubs of group-level degree centrality. However, significant effects of wavelet scale, network threshold and network type were found on individual-level degree centrality. Significant effects of network threshold and network type were found on reliability of degree centrality. The results suggested that the voxel-wise morphological connectivity was reliable and exhibited a hub structure. Moreover, the voxel-wise morphological connectivity could reflect individual differences. In summary, individual voxel-wise wavelet-based features can probe morphological connectivity and may be beneficial for investigating the brain morphological connectomes.

Interaction Between Season of Birth and COMT Val158Met (rs4680) in ADHD in a Large Sample of Chinese Han Participants

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the interaction between catechol-O-methyltransferase gene (COMT) Val108/158Met (rs4680) and season of birth (SOB) on ADHD and its symptoms.

METHOD

We conducted transmission disequilibrium tests (TDTs) in 976 trios, then further performed the above analyses in subgroups according to SOB. Quantitative analyses were performed for ADHD symptoms evaluated by ADHD Rating Scale-IV in 1,530 ADHD cases.

RESULTS

Overall, there was no association between COMT and ADHD. After stratification, we found an increased transmission of the Val allele in the trios born in spring, while a decreased transmission was observed in the autumn months. We also observed a significant interaction between Val108/158Met and SOB on ADHD symptoms. Among those born in spring, Met carriers had milder ADHD symptoms compared with Val homozygotes, whereas opposite association was found in those born in autumn.

CONCLUSION

Our study provided evidence for the modifying effect of SOB on the association between COMT and ADHD along with its symptoms.