Department of Psychology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA.
Department of Anatomy/Neurobiology, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA; Department of Neurology, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.
Front Neuroendocrinol. 2019 Apr;53:100736. doi: 10.1016/j.yfrne.2019.01.002. Epub 2019 Jan 31.
Mental illnesses originate early in life, governed by environmental and genetic factors. Because parents are a dominant source of signals to the developing child, parental signals - beginning with maternal signals in utero - are primary contributors to children's mental health. Existing literature on maternal signals has focused almost exclusively on their quality and valence (e.g. maternal depression, sensitivity). Here we identify a novel dimension of maternal signals: their patterns and especially their predictability/unpredictability, as an important determinant of children's neurodevelopment. We find that unpredictable maternal mood and behavior presage risk for child and adolescent psychopathology. In experimental models, fragmented/unpredictable maternal care patterns directly induce aberrant synaptic connectivity and disturbed maturation of cognitive and emotional brain circuits, with commensurate memory problems and anhedonia-like behaviors. Together, our findings across species demonstrate that patterns of maternal signals influence brain circuit maturation, promoting resilience or vulnerability to mental illness.
精神疾病起源于生命早期，受环境和遗传因素的影响。由于父母是向发育中的孩子发出信号的主要来源，因此父母的信号——从子宫内的母亲信号开始——是儿童心理健康的主要贡献者。现有的关于母亲信号的文献几乎完全集中在它们的质量和效价（例如，母亲抑郁、敏感性）上。在这里，我们确定了母亲信号的一个新维度：它们的模式，特别是它们的可预测性/不可预测性，作为儿童神经发育的一个重要决定因素。我们发现，不可预测的母亲情绪和行为预示着儿童和青少年精神病理学的风险。在实验模型中，碎片化/不可预测的母亲照顾模式直接导致异常的突触连接和认知和情绪大脑回路的发育障碍，伴随着相应的记忆问题和快感缺失样行为。总之，我们在不同物种中的发现表明，母亲信号的模式会影响大脑回路的成熟，促进对精神疾病的适应或易感性。
