Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Functional Interrogation of Adult Hypothalamic Neurogenesis with Focal Radiological Inhibition
Published on: November 14, 2013
Effect of low doses of ionising radiation in infancy on cognitive function in adulthood: Swedish population based
Per Hall1, Hans-Olov Adami, Dimitrios Trichopoulos
1Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute, PO Box 281, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden. Per.Hall@mep.ki.se
Objective:
To determine whether exposure to low doses of ionising radiation in infancy affects cognitive function in adulthood.
Design:
Population based cohort study.
Setting:
Sweden.
Participants:
3094 men who had received radiation for cutaneous haemangioma before age 18 months during 1930-59.
Main Outcome Measures:
Radiation dose to frontal and posterior parts of the brain, and association between dose and intellectual capacity at age 18 or 19 years based on cognitive tests (learning ability, logical reasoning, spatial recognition) and high school attendance.
Results:
The proportion of boys who attended high school decreased with increasing doses of radiation to both the frontal and the posterior parts of the brain from about 32% among those not exposed to around 17% in those who received > 250 mGy. For the frontal dose, the multivariate odds ratio was 0.47 (95% confidence interval 0.26 to 0.85, P for trend 0.0003) and for the posterior dose it was 0.59 (0.23 to 1.47, 0.0005). A negative dose-response relation was also evident for the three cognitive tests for learning ability and logical reasoning but not for the test of spatial recognition.
Conclusions:
Low doses of ionising radiation to the brain in infancy influence cognitive abilities in adulthood.
Related Concept Videos
Environmental Influences on Intelligence
Cognitive Development During Adulthood
Biological Effects of Radiation
Biological Influences on Intelligence
Information Processing Approach
