Preeti Kar's research while affiliated with The University of Calgary and other places

... Microstructural anomalies have been observed in several brain areas, including, e.g., the temporal lobe, cingulate gyrus, corticospinal tracts, inferior frontaloccipital fasciculus, inferior and superior longitudinal fasciculus, and thalamus. The most frequently observed anomalies include a decreased value of Fractional Anisotropy (FA) and increased values of Mean Diffusivity (MD) as well as the Apparent Diffusion Coefficient of water (ADC) [40][41][42], although studies investigating young children and neonates present the opposite results [43]. In the corpus callosum, altered DTI parameters are found in the splenium, isthmus, and genu [23,40,[43][44][45]. ...

... Τα τελευταία χρόνια παρατηρείται αυξανόμενο ενδιαφέρον σχετικά με τη χρήση εθιστικών ουσιών κατά τη διάρκεια της πανδημίας COVID-19. Προηγούμενες μελέτες διερεύνησαν στον γενικό πληθυσμό τη συσχέτιση μεταξύ του καπνίσματος και της σοβαρότητας της νόσου COVID-19 [11,12], ενώ κάποιοι ερευνητές μελέτησαν τη μητρική κατανάλωση καπνού εν μέσω της πανδημίας COVID-19 [13][14][15][16]. Μετά από αναζήτηση της βιβλιογραφίας, αυτή είναι η πρώτη ελληνική μελέτη κατά τη διάρκεια της πανδημίας που αναφέρεται στην κατανάλωση καπνού κατά την περιγεννητική περίοδο και παρουσιάζει συσχετίσεις με τη διάρκεια και τη διακοπή του μητρικού θηλασμού. ...

... Another study with 50 preterm adolescents found that, in boys, the percentage of diet expressed by breast milk in early life was directly associated with absolute total intracranial volume and white matter volume in both hemispheres [16]. Some studies have found association between breastfeeding and brain microstructure [17], with findings suggesting a positive relation when considering global and white matter development, even after controlling for perinatal and sociodemographic factors [18]. In addition, a few studies have analyzed the impacts of breastfeeding on cortical structures of preterm children. ...

... Another interpretation that is not mutually exclusive is that the primary or secondary effects of the injury initially damaged white matter and the apparent advanced maturational state of white matter in female children with past concussion is the consequence of the recovery response that involved increased axon diameter, more densely packed axons and/or increased myelination (Armstrong et al., 2016). Of note comparable profiles of atypical development of brain connectivity have been observed following pre-and post-natal adversity in other studies (Gee et al., 2013;Kar et al., 2021). ...

... Expanding upon current understanding of how socioeconomic resources and ACEs contribute to PAE-and PTE-related structural brain alterations, we applied a novel conceptual model in the present analyses to examine PAE and PTE as mediators of socioeconomic resources and postnatal ACEs, and to examine the effects of socioeconomic resources, PAE/PTE, and ACEs on brain outcomes. Rather than framing prenatal substance exposure as primary predictors of brain alterations, this intentional reframing of prenatal substance exposure as a mediator is warranted, given the commonly co-occurring of between prenatal substance, socioeconomic resources (Bingol et al., 1987;McLachlan et al., 2020) and ACEs (Kambeitz et al., 2019;Andre et al., 2020): all factors known to individually impact brain development (Rivkin et al., 2008;Dannlowski et al., 2012;Noble et al., 2012;Luby et al., 2013;Bick and Nelson, 2016). ...

... Based on data from the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, prior to the pandemic, 8.5% of pregnant women used illicit drugs (7.1% used marijuana), 14.7% used tobacco products, and 11.5% used alcohol. One study of Canadian pregnant women found increased use of cannabis and tobacco related to COVID-19 stress, and that this substance use increase was more frequent in participants experiencing financial struggles, loss of employment, or stress about receiving poor prenatal care (Kar et al., 2020). While the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of pregnant women and rates of substance use has been examined in Canada (Kar et al., 2020), these effects have been largely influenced by individual government response. ...

... Pearson's correlation coefficients were then computed between the average time series from each AAL regions, and Fischer's z scores were generated to create a 90 × 90 connectivity matrix for each data set. The graph theoretical measures were computed for the threshold and binarized individual connectivity matrix of the whole time series, similar to previous studies (Wozniak et al. 2017) (Long et al. 2019). The threshold of the matrix was set at r = 0.15, P < 0.05. ...

... As such, FASD was reported to be more common among lower socioeconomic groups (Bingol et al., 1987). Estimates indicated 50-66% of children and adolescents with PAE were exposed to adverse child experiences (ACEs; Flannigan et al., 2021a, Kambeitz et al., 2019, Lebel et al., 2019. ...