In what is being called the first study of its kind, researchers at the University of Hawaii's John A. Burns School of Medicine today said that children whose mothers used methamphetamine during pregnancy developed brain abnormalities.

The study appears in the journal Neurology.

UH researchers, led by Dr. Linda Chang, examined brain scans of a group of 3- and 4-year-old children. Twenty-nine had been exposed to meth while their mothers were pregnant, 37 were unexposed.

Researchers say the scans offer the first physical evidence of brain damage that can occur during fetal development if a pregnant woman uses meth.

Diffusion tensor imaging, which allows evaluation of brain microstructures, showed meth-exposed children had abnormal development in the white matter that carries messages throughout the brain.

The researchers said they plan to follow the children as they grow to see if the differences persist.