Acosta Henriette, Tuulari Jetro J, Scheinin Noora M, Hashempour Niloofar, Rajasilta Olli, Lavonius Tuomas I, Pelto Juho, Saunavaara Virva, Parkkola Riitta, Lähdesmäki Tuire, Karlsson Linnea, Karlsson Hasse
The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
Department of Psychiatry, Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2019 Aug 6;13:175. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00175. eCollection 2019.
Prenatal stress is associated with child behavioral outcomes increasing susceptibility for psychiatric disorders in later life. Altered fetal brain development might partly mediate this association, as some studies suggest. With this study, we investigated the relation between prenatal stress, child's brain structure and behavioral problems. The association between self-reported maternal pregnancy-related anxiety (PRAQ-R2 questionnaire, second and third trimester) and brain gray matter volume was probed in 27 4-year-old children (13 female). Voxel based morphometry was applied with an age-matched template in SPM for the whole-brain analyses, and amygdala volume was assessed with manual segmentation. Possible pre- and postnatal confounders, such as maternal depression and anxiety among others, were controlled for. Child behavioral problems were assessed with the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire by maternal report. We found a significant interaction effect of pregnancy-related anxiety and child's sex on child's amygdala volume, i.e., higher pregnancy-related anxiety in the second trimester was related to significantly greater left relative amygdala volume in girls compared to boys. Further exploratory analyses yielded that both maternal pregnancy-related anxiety and child's amygdala volume are related to child emotional and behavioral difficulties: While higher pregnancy-related anxiety was associated with more emotional symptoms, peer relationship problems and overall child difficulties, greater left amygdala volume was related to less of these child difficulties and might partly mediate sex-specific associations between pregnancy-related anxiety and child behavioral difficulties. Our data suggest that maternal prenatal distress leads to sexually dimorphic structural changes in the offspring's limbic system and that these changes are also linked to behavioral difficulties. Our results provide further support for the notion that prenatal stress impacts child development.
产前应激与儿童行为结果相关，会增加其在晚年患精神疾病的易感性。正如一些研究所表明的，胎儿大脑发育的改变可能部分介导了这种关联。在本研究中，我们调查了产前应激、儿童脑结构与行为问题之间的关系。我们对27名4岁儿童（13名女性）进行了研究，探究自我报告的母亲孕期相关焦虑（孕中期和孕晚期的PRAQ-R2问卷）与脑灰质体积之间的关联。在SPM中使用年龄匹配模板进行基于体素的形态测量以进行全脑分析，并用手动分割法评估杏仁核体积。对可能的产前和产后混杂因素，如母亲抑郁和焦虑等进行了控制。通过母亲报告，使用优势与困难问卷评估儿童行为问题。我们发现孕期相关焦虑与儿童性别对儿童杏仁核体积有显著的交互作用，即与男孩相比，孕中期较高的孕期相关焦虑与女孩左侧相对杏仁核体积显著增大有关。进一步的探索性分析表明，母亲孕期相关焦虑和儿童杏仁核体积均与儿童情绪和行为困难有关：虽然较高的孕期相关焦虑与更多的情绪症状、同伴关系问题及儿童总体困难相关，但左侧杏仁核体积越大与这些儿童困难越少相关，并且可能部分介导了孕期相关焦虑与儿童行为困难之间的性别特异性关联。我们的数据表明，母亲产前困扰会导致后代边缘系统出现性别差异的结构变化，并且这些变化也与行为困难有关。我们的结果为产前应激影响儿童发育这一观点提供了进一步支持。
