Climate disasters can destroy communities and power systems, but afterward, the effects can continue — even affecting the brains of children born in the aftermath, according to a new study.

Climate anxieties and how they impact pregnancies can affect the development of babies’ brains, says a study published in the journal PLOS One [Public Library of Science]. The research used brain imaging conducted years after 2012’s Superstorm Sandy hit metro New York City.

Evaluating a sample of dozens of children, some of whose parents were pregnant during Superstorm Sandy, the study found those exposed to Sandy in utero had a significant enlargement in a part of the brain, the basal ganglia. Parts of that area were as much as 6% larger than in unexposed children, a change that could have negative implications for the children’s behavior.

The researchers haven’t determined how the changes they observed may exactly affect the young subjects, the basal ganglia is involved in functions including emotional regulation. Other studies have linked the basal ganglia to conditions such as depression and autism.

“This is something which people who are going to get pregnant should know and be prepared,” says Yoko Nomura, a professor at Queens College at the City University of New York who co-authored the PLOS One research.

“Society as a whole has to have a strategy to protect those pregnant people,” Nomura told Bloomberg News.