Anomalies in regional cortical morphology and associations with neurocognitive function in children with prenatal cannabis exposure and unexposed comparisons

Prenatal cannabis exposure (PCE) is associated with neurocognitive impairments in childhood, but the underlying neurodevelopmental process remains unclear. In analysis of a subset of data from a prospective cohort of children (age 7–8 years, n = 56) with and without PCE in the US, we find that PCE is associated with lower performance on a task of working memory ability, although this association was attenuated (and non-significant) after controlling for prenatal tobacco exposure. Differences between exposure groups were not apparent on several other cognitive tasks. Compared to unexposed peers, children with PCE also show reductions in a multivariate metric of cortical thickness predominantly within the frontal and parietal cortices when accounting for confounding variables. Exploratory hypothesis-generating analyses suggest an association between regional brain morphology and neurocognitive performance in domains of attention and executive function, although the clinical and functional implications for children with PCE remains to be determined.