Special issue: Research report Postnatal arsenic exposure and attention impairment in school children Miguel Rodrı´guez-Barranco a,b , Fernando Gil c , Antonio F. Hern  andez c,* , Juan Alguacil d,e , Andres Lorca f , Ram  on Mendoza g , Inmaculada G  omez h , Isabel Molina-Villalba c , Beatriz Gonz  alez-Alzaga a,b , Clemente Aguilar-Gardu ~ no i , Diane S. Rohlman j,k and Marina Lacasa ~ na a,b,e a Andalusian School of Public Health (EASP), Granada, Spain b Instituto de Investigaci on Biosanitaria (ibs), Granada, University Hospitals of Granada/University of Granada, Granada, Spain c Department of Legal Medicine and Toxicology, University of Granada School of Medicine, Granada, Spain d Research Center on Health and Environment (CYSMA), University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain e CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain f Department of Clinical, Experimental and Social Psychology, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain g Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain h Department of Psychology, University of Almerı´a, Almerı´a, Spain i Center for Public Health Research (CSISP-FISABIO), Valencia, Spain j Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA k Oregon Institute for Occupational Health Sciences, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, USA article info Article history: Received 29 September 2014 Reviewed 30 October 2014 Revised 10 November 2014 Accepted 17 December 2014 Published online xxx Keywords: Attention ADHD Neurobehavioral disorder Arsenic Neurotoxicity Children abstract Over the last few decades there has been an increased concern about the health risks from exposure to metallic trace elements, including arsenic, because of their potential neuro- toxic effects on the developing brain. This study assessed whether urinary arsenic (UA) levels are associated with attention performance and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Dis- order (ADHD) in children living in an area with high industrial and mining activities in Southwestern Spain. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 261 children aged 6e9 years. Arsenic levels were determined in urine samples. Attention was measured by using 4 independent tools: a) tests from the Behavioral Assessment and Research System (BARS) designed to measure attention function: Simple Reaction Time Test (RTT), Continuous Performance Test (CPT) and Selective Attention Test (SAT); b) AULA Test, a virtual reality (VR)-based test that evaluates children's response to several stimuli in an environment simulating a classroom; c) Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), administered to parents; and d) Teacher's Report Form (TRF), administered to teachers. Multivariate linear and logistic regression models, adjusted for potential confounders, were used to estimate the magni- tude of the association between UA levels and attention performance scores. Higher UA * Corresponding author. Department of Legal Medicine and Toxicology, University of Granada School of Medicine, Avda. Madrid, 11, 18071 Granada, Spain. E-mail address: ajerez@ugr.es (A.F. Hern andez). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex cortex xxx (2015) 1 e13 Please cite this article in press as: Rodrı ´guez-Barranco, M., et al., Postnatal arsenic exposure and attention impairment in school children, Cortex (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2014.12.018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2014.12.018 0010-9452/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.