Du Jingnan, Rolls Edmund T, Gong Weikang, Cao Miao, Vatansever Deniz, Zhang Jie, Kang Jujiao, Cheng Wei, Feng Jianfeng
Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China.
Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Ministry of Education, Shanghai, 200433, China.
Mol Psychiatry. 2022 Feb;27(2):967-975. doi: 10.1038/s41380-021-01325-5. Epub 2021 Oct 14.
To investigate the relation between parental age, and behavioral, cognitive and brain differences in the children.
Data with children aged 9-11 of 8709 mothers with parental age 15-45 years were analyzed from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. A general linear model was used to test the associations of the parental age with brain structure, and behavioral and cognitive problems scores.
Behavioral and cognitive problems were greater in the children of the younger mothers, and were associated with lower volumes of cortical regions in the children. There was a linear correlation between the behavioral and cognitive problems scores, and the lower brain volumes (r > 0.6), which was evident when parental age was included as a stratification factor. The regions with lower volume included the anterior cingulate cortex, medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala, parahippocampal gyrus and hippocampus, and temporal lobe (FDR corrected p < 0.01). The lower cortical volumes and areas in the children significantly mediated the association between the parental age and the behavioral and cognitive problems in the children (all p < 10). The effects were large, such as the 71.4% higher depressive problems score, and 27.5% higher rule-breaking score, in the children of mothers aged 15-19 than the mothers aged 34-35.
Lower parental age is associated with behavioral problems and reduced cognitive performance in the children, and these differences are related to lower volumes and areas of some cortical regions which mediate the effects in the children. The findings are relevant to psychiatric understanding and assessment.
研究父母年龄与儿童行为、认知及大脑差异之间的关系。
对青少年大脑认知发展（ABCD）研究中8709名母亲年龄在15 - 45岁、孩子年龄在9 - 11岁的数据进行分析。采用一般线性模型来检验父母年龄与大脑结构、行为及认知问题得分之间的关联。
年轻母亲所生孩子的行为和认知问题更多，且与孩子大脑皮质区域体积较小有关。行为和认知问题得分与较小的脑容量之间存在线性相关性（r > 0.6），当将父母年龄作为分层因素时这种相关性很明显。脑容量较小的区域包括前扣带回皮质、眶额内侧和外侧皮质、杏仁核、海马旁回和海马以及颞叶（错误发现率校正p < 0.01）。儿童较低的皮质体积和面积显著介导了父母年龄与儿童行为和认知问题之间的关联（所有p < 10）。这些影响很大，例如，15 - 19岁母亲所生孩子的抑郁问题得分比34 - 35岁母亲所生孩子高71.4%，违反规则得分高27.5%。
父母年龄较低与儿童的行为问题和认知能力下降有关，这些差异与一些皮质区域的较小体积和面积有关，这些区域介导了对儿童的影响。这些发现与精神病学的理解和评估相关。
