# Brain and Behavioral Indicators of Risk for Parkinsonism among Adolescents with Early Pesticide Exposure

> **NIH NIH R01** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2022 · $404,717

## Abstract

This proposal leverages the infrastructure and science of the parent study R01 ES030039 that currently aims to
identify early adult brain and behavioral risk indicators for parkinsonism in a minority cohort followed since birth
as part of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health. We now propose to apply our risk
assessment methods to better understand the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) in this same cohort of
African American and Dominican American young adults—race/ethnic populations with the highest rates of AD,
yet underrepresented in research studies. AD is the most common progressive neurodegenerative disorder, now
understood to be a chronic ‘age-related’ disease beginning with an asymptomatic preclinical phase, progressing
to a symptomatic pre-dementia phase (mild cognitive impairment or MCI), and concluding with memory loss,
functional decline and dementia. AD is characterized by abnormal build-up of proteins that form amyloid plaques
and tau tangles in the brain, a process that may underlie cognitive decline. Currently, there is a lack of high
quality biologic data on risk indicators, preclinical brain and behavioral changes, and very early disease
progression in minority populations, posing critical barriers to understanding how disease processes operate in
different race/ethnic groups. The parent study includes measures of extrapyramidal function, sleep behavior,
autonomic function, olfactory deficits, executive function, cognitive function or impairment, gait, tremor and
structural magnetic resonance imaging obtained at 18-21 years of age—all of which may provide vital information
on baseline risk for AD in this sample. This cohort is unique in having a previously-collected biomarker of
exposure to chlorpyrifos (CPF), a broad-spectrum organophosphate insecticide known to be an environmental
risk factor for both Parkinson’s (PD) and AD, permitting us to classify our sample by level of potential
environmental risk for neurodegenerative disease. In this supplement, using parent study data, we will first
characterize the current cognitive, neurological, and behavioral ‘health’ of the cohort in early adulthood using
previously-collected data, to derive a multi-modal profile of baseline capital reserve. To these data, we will add
several new cognitive measures to tap memory and visuoperceptual functions at 22 years. Second, applying an
algorithm developed by Provenzano (co-investigator on this supplement) to T1w neuroimaging data collected in
the parent study, we will estimate the divergence between chronological age and estimated brain age. Third, we
will test associations between this divergence (from Aim 2) and the profile of cognitive, neurological, and
behavioral ‘health’ (from Aim 1). To this model, we will add the biomarker of CPF exposure to assess the
contribution of a toxic exposure to the baseline profile and brain age divergence. Establishing these baseline
data for brain and behavioral health in early adu...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10498329
- **Project number:** 3R01ES030039-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** F. DuBois Bowman
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $404,717
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-01-15 → 2024-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10498329

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10498329, Brain and Behavioral Indicators of Risk for Parkinsonism among Adolescents with Early Pesticide Exposure (3R01ES030039-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10498329. Licensed CC0.

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