The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Philipps University of Marburg, Rudolf-Bultmann-St. 8, 35039, Marburg, Germany.
The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland; Turku Collegium for Science and Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2020 Oct 30;304:111153. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2020.111153. Epub 2020 Jul 29.
Prenatal maternal depressive symptoms are related to an increased offspring susceptibility to psychiatric disorders over the life course. Alterations in fetal brain development might partly mediate this association. The relation of prenatal depressive symptoms with child's amygdalar volumes is still underexplored, and this study aimed to address this gap. We explored the association of prenatal maternal depressive symptoms with amygdalar volumes in 28 4-year-old children (14 female). Amygdalar volumes were assessed using the volBrain pipeline and manual segmentation. Prenatal depressive symptoms were self-reported by mothers at gestational weeks 14, 24 and 34 (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale). Sex differences were probed, and possible pre- and postnatal confounders, such as maternal general anxiety, were controlled for. We observed that elevated depressive symptoms of the early second trimester, after controlling for prenatal maternal general anxiety, were significantly related to smaller right amygdalar volumes in the whole sample. Higher depressive symptoms of the third trimester were associated with significantly smaller right amygdalar volumes in boys compared to girls. Altogether, our data suggest that offspring limbic brain development might be affected by maternal depressive symptoms in early pregnancy, and might also be more vulnerable to depressive symptoms in late pregnancy in boys compared to girls.
产前母亲的抑郁症状与后代在整个生命过程中易患精神障碍有关。胎儿大脑发育的改变可能部分介导了这种关联。产前抑郁症状与儿童杏仁核体积的关系仍未得到充分探索，本研究旨在探讨这一空白。我们探讨了产前母亲抑郁症状与 28 名 4 岁儿童（14 名女性）杏仁核体积之间的关系。使用 volBrain 管道和手动分割评估杏仁核体积。母亲在妊娠第 14、24 和 34 周时（爱丁堡产后抑郁量表）自我报告产前抑郁症状。探究了性别差异，并控制了可能的产前和产后混杂因素，如母亲一般焦虑。我们发现，在控制了产前母亲一般焦虑后，第二个三个月早期升高的抑郁症状与整个样本中右杏仁核体积较小显著相关。第三个三个月的较高抑郁症状与男孩相比，女孩的右杏仁核体积明显较小。总之，我们的数据表明，后代边缘脑的发育可能受到妊娠早期母亲抑郁症状的影响，与女孩相比，男孩在妊娠晚期可能更容易受到抑郁症状的影响。
