Department of Biomedical Engineering and Clinical Imaging Research Center, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 3 Block E4 #04-08, Singapore, 117583, Singapore.
Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Singapore, 117609, Singapore.
Brain Struct Funct. 2019 Jun;224(5):1885-1895. doi: 10.1007/s00429-019-01882-0. Epub 2019 May 4.
Maternal care influences child hippocampal development. The hippocampus is functionally organized along an anterior-posterior axis. Little is known with regards to the extent maternal care shapes offspring anterior and posterior hippocampal (aHPC, pHPC) functional networks. This study examined maternal behavior, especially maternal sensitivity, at 6 months postpartum in relation to aHPC and pHPC functional networks of children at age 4 and 6 years. Maternal sensitivity was assessed at 6 months via the "Maternal Behavior Q Sort (MBQS) mini for video". Subsequently, 61 and 76 children underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), respectively, at 4 and 6 years of age. We found that maternal sensitivity assessed at 6 months postpartum was associated with the right aHPC functional networks in children at both 4 and 6 years of age. At age 4 years, maternal sensitivity was associated positively with the right aHPC's functional connectivity with the sensorimotor network and negatively with the aHPC's functional connectivity with the top-down cognitive control network. At 6 years of age, maternal sensitivity was linked positively with the right aHPC's functional connectivity with the visual-processing network. Our findings suggested that maternal sensitivity in infancy has a long-term impact on the anterior hippocampal functional network in preschool children, implicating a potential role of maternal care in shaping child brain development in early life.
母婴护理对儿童海马体发育有影响。海马体沿前后轴进行功能组织。目前，尚不清楚母婴护理在多大程度上塑造了后代前、后海马体（aHPC、pHPC）功能网络。本研究通过“产后 6 个月的母婴行为 Q 分类（MBQS 迷你视频）”评估了母婴行为，尤其是母婴敏感性，与 4 岁和 6 岁儿童的 aHPC 和 pHPC 功能网络有关。6 个月时，我们通过“产后 6 个月的母婴行为 Q 分类（MBQS 迷你视频）”评估了母婴敏感性。随后，分别有 61 名和 76 名儿童在 4 岁和 6 岁时接受了静息态功能磁共振成像（rs-fMRI）检查。我们发现，产后 6 个月评估的母婴敏感性与 4 岁和 6 岁儿童的右 aHPC 功能网络有关。在 4 岁时，母婴敏感性与右 aHPC 与感觉运动网络的功能连接呈正相关，与 aHPC 与自上而下的认知控制网络的功能连接呈负相关。在 6 岁时，母婴敏感性与右 aHPC 与视觉处理网络的功能连接呈正相关。我们的研究结果表明，婴儿期的母婴敏感性对学龄前儿童的前海马体功能网络有长期影响，这表明母婴护理在塑造儿童早期大脑发育方面可能发挥作用。
