Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 25, 2026
Profiling Maternal Behavior Responses During Whole-Brain Imaging
Published on: January 24, 2025
The impact of maternal smoking on fast auditory brainstem responses
Julie A Kable1, Claire D Coles, Mary Ellen Lynch
1Department of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30324, USA. jkabl01@emory.edu
Insights
Maternal smoking during pregnancy negatively impacts infant auditory processing, specifically delaying auditory brainstem responses. This suggests prenatal smoke exposure may disrupt early sensory encoding crucial for later language development.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Audiology
Background:
- Prenatal exposure to maternal smoking is linked to neurodevelopmental issues.
- Auditory processing deficits are hypothesized to underlie language and reading impairments.
- Early sensory processing disruptions may have long-term consequences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between prenatal cigarette exposure and auditory processing in infants.
- To assess auditory brainstem responses (ABR) in relation to maternal smoking levels.
- To determine if prenatal smoke exposure affects the sensory encoding of auditory stimuli.
Main Methods:
- Utilized fast auditory brainstem responses (ABR) to measure auditory processing in 6-month-old infants.
- Assessed prenatal cigarette exposure through maternal self-report and blood samples.
- Controlled for covariates including participant age, perinatal complications, and maternal alcohol use.
Main Results:
- Maternal smoking during pregnancy was significantly associated with increased latency in auditory brainstem responses.
- Perinatal complications and maternal alcohol use also correlated with ABR latency.
- Maternal smoking uniquely predicted ABR latency variance, even after accounting for other factors.
Conclusions:
- Prenatal exposure to maternal smoking appears to disrupt the sensory encoding of auditory information in infants.
- These findings support the hypothesis that maternal smoking can lead to neurodevelopmental consequences affecting auditory processing.
- Early auditory processing alterations may contribute to later language and reading deficits observed in children exposed to smoke in utero.
Abstract:
Deficits in auditory processing have been posited as one of the underlying neurodevelopmental consequences of maternal smoking during pregnancy that leads to later language and reading deficits. Fast auditory brainstem responses were used to assess differences in the sensory processing of auditory stimuli among infants with varying degrees of prenatal cigarette exposure. Maternal report of consumption of cigarettes and blood samples were collected in the hospital to assess exposure levels and participants were then seen at 6-months. To participate in the study, all infants had to pass the newborn hearing exam or a clinically administered ABR and have no known health problems. After controlling for participant age, maternal smoking during pregnancy was negatively related to latency of auditory brainstem responses. Of several potential covariates, only perinatal complications and maternal alcohol use were also related to latency of the ABR responses and maternal smoking level accounted for significant unique variance after controlling for these factors. These results suggest that the relationship between maternal smoking may lead to disruption in the sensory encoding of auditory stimuli.
