Department of Biomedical Engineering and Clinical Imaging Research Center, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117583, Singapore.
Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Singapore 117609, Singapore.
Cereb Cortex. 2020 Mar 14;30(3):901-912. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhz135.
Maternal depression is associated with disrupted neurodevelopment in offspring. This study examined relationships among postnatal maternal depressive symptoms, the functional reward network and behavioral problems in 4.5-year-old boys (57) and girls (65). We employed canonical correlation analysis to evaluate whether the resting-state functional connectivity within a reward network, identified through an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of fMRI studies, was associated with postnatal maternal depressive symptoms and child behaviors. The functional reward network consisted of three subnetworks, that is, the mesolimbic, mesocortical, and amygdala-hippocampus reward subnetworks. Postnatal maternal depressive symptoms were associated with the functional connectivity of the mesocortical subnetwork with the mesolimbic and amygdala-hippocampus complex subnetworks in girls and with the functional connectivity within the mesocortical subnetwork in boys. The functional connectivity of the amygdala-hippocampus subnetwork with the mesocortical and mesolimbic subnetworks was associated with both internalizing and externalizing problems in girls, while in boys, the functional connectivity of the mesocortical subnetwork with the amygdala-hippocampus complex and the mesolimbic subnetworks was associated with the internalizing and externalizing problems, respectively. Our findings suggest that the functional reward network might be a promising neural phenotype for effects of maternal depression and potential intervention to nurture child behavioral development.
母亲的抑郁与后代的神经发育障碍有关。本研究调查了产后母亲抑郁症状、功能奖励网络与 4.5 岁男孩（57 名）和女孩（65 名）行为问题之间的关系。我们采用典型相关分析来评估 fMRI 研究的激活似然估计（ALE）元分析确定的奖励网络内的静息态功能连接是否与产后母亲抑郁症状和儿童行为有关。功能奖励网络由三个子网组成，即中脑边缘、中皮质和杏仁核-海马奖励子网。产后母亲的抑郁症状与女孩中皮质子网与中脑边缘和杏仁核-海马复合体子网之间的功能连接以及男孩中皮质子网内的功能连接有关。杏仁核-海马子网与中皮质和中脑边缘子网的功能连接与女孩的内化和外化问题有关，而在男孩中，中皮质子网与杏仁核-海马复合体和中脑边缘子网的功能连接与内化和外化问题有关。我们的研究结果表明，功能奖励网络可能是母亲抑郁影响和潜在干预儿童行为发展的有希望的神经表型。
