Human exposure to organophosphate pesticides (OP) is widespread. Several studies suggest that OP prenatal exposure alters the development of cognitive and behavioural functions in children, but the effects of OP prenatal exposure on child sensory functions are largely unknown. The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between OP prenatal exposure and visual processing in school-aged children from the mother-child PELAGIE cohort (France). OP biomarkers of exposure were measured in maternal urine samples at the beginning of pregnancy. The Functional Acuity Contrast Test (FACT) was used to assess visual contrast sensitivity in 180 children at 6 years of age. Linear regression models were performed on all children, and separately for boys and girls, taking into account various potential confounders, including maternal education and breastfeeding. No associations were observed in the whole sample, while maternal OP urinary metabolite levels were associated with a decrease of FACT scores in boys. These findings indicate that OP prenatal exposure might impair visual processing later in life in boys only.

人类广泛接触有机磷农药（OP）。多项研究表明，OP产前暴露会改变儿童认知和行为功能的发展，但OP产前暴露对儿童感觉功能的影响尚不清楚。这项研究的目的是评估来自母婴PELAGIE队列（法国）的学龄儿童OP产前暴露与视觉加工之间的关联。在怀孕开始时在母体尿液样品中测量OP暴露的生物标志物。功能敏锐度对比测试（FACT）用于评估180岁6岁儿童的视觉对比敏感度。考虑到各种潜在的混杂因素，对所有儿童以及男孩和女孩分别进行了线性回归模型，包括孕产妇教育和母乳喂养。在整个样本中未观察到关联，而母亲OP尿代谢产物水平与男孩FACT评分降低有关。这些发现表明，仅在男孩中，OP产前暴露可能会损害其生命后期的视觉处理。