Geographic Measures of Early Life-Course Social Exposome in the Evaluation of Structural Neuroanatomy: A Scoping...

Life-course social exposome exposures may influence structural neuroanatomy in early life, thereby altering risk and protective factors implicated in the biological mechanisms of disease. The literature examining geospatially defined early-life social exposome exposures and their association with structural neuroanatomy has not been characterized. A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus (Elsevier), Web of Science Core Collection (Clarivate), PsycINFO (EBSCO), and Google Scholar. The study team dually screened 4960 records, 35 of which were included in the final review. Most articles identified an association between adverse social exposome exposures and aberrant structural neuroanatomy (n = 32). Studies assessed multiple developmental periods: infancy (n = 4), childhood (n = 27), early adolescence (n = 11), and late adolescence (n = 7). The Area Deprivation Index was the most widely used social exposome metric (n = 21). Future research should seek harmonized approaches to investigating the duration and magnitude of exposures and their association with brain structure and function.