Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada; Brain and Mind Research, Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada.
Neuroimage Clin. 2022;34:102976. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2022.102976. Epub 2022 Mar 2.
Prenatal stress influences brain development and mood disorder vulnerability. Brain structural covariance network (SCN) properties based on inter-regional volumetric correlations may reflect developmentally-mediated shared plasticity among regions. Childhood trauma is associated with amygdala-centric SCN reorganization patterns, however, the impact of prenatal stress on SCN properties remains unknown.
The study included participants from the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC) with archival prenatal stress data and structural MRI acquired in young adulthood (age 23-24). SCNs were constructed based on Freesurfer-extracted volumes of 7 subcortical and 34 cortical regions. We compared amygdala degree centrality, a measure of hubness, between those exposed to high vs. low (median split) prenatal stress, defined by maternal reports of stressful life events during the first (n = 93, 57% female) and second (n = 125, 54% female) half of pregnancy. Group differences were tested across network density thresholds (5-40%) using 10,000 permutations, with sex and intracranial volume as covariates, followed by sex-specific analyses. Finally, we sought to replicate our results in an independent all-male sample (n = 450, age 18-20) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).
The high-stress during the first half of pregnancy ELSPAC group showed lower amygdala degree particularly in men, who demonstrated this difference at 10 consecutive thresholds, with no significant differences in global network properties. At the lowest significant density threshold, amygdala volume was positively correlated with hippocampus, putamen, rostral anterior and posterior cingulate, transverse temporal, and pericalcarine cortex in the low-stress (p(FDR) < 0.027), but not the high-stress (p(FDR) > 0.882) group. Although amygdala degree was nominally lower across thresholds in the high-stress ALSPAC group, these results were not significant.
Unlike childhood trauma, prenatal stress may shift SCN towards a less amygdala-centric SCN pattern, particularly in men. These findings did not replicate in an all-male ALSPAC sample, possibly due to the sample's younger age and lower prenatal stress exposure.
产前应激会影响大脑发育和情绪障碍易感性。基于区域间容积相关性的脑结构协变网络（SCN）特性可能反映了区域间发育介导的共享可塑性。童年创伤与以杏仁核为中心的 SCN 重组模式有关，但产前应激对 SCN 特性的影响尚不清楚。
本研究纳入了来自欧洲妊娠和儿童纵向研究（ELSPAC）的参与者，他们有产前应激数据和在成年早期（23-24 岁）获得的结构 MRI。SCN 是基于 Freesurfer 提取的 7 个皮质下和 34 个皮质区域的体积构建的。我们比较了暴露于高（中位数分割）与低（中位数分割）产前应激（通过母亲报告妊娠前半段（n=93，57%为女性）和后半段（n=125，54%为女性）的生活应激事件来定义）的参与者之间的杏仁核度中心性，这是衡量枢纽度的指标。使用 10000 次置换检验了网络密度阈值（5-40%）之间的组间差异，同时考虑了性别和颅内体积作为协变量，然后进行了性别特异性分析。最后，我们试图在来自雅芳纵向父母与子女研究（ALSPAC）的独立全男性样本（n=450，年龄 18-20 岁）中复制我们的结果。
在妊娠前半段经历高应激的 ELSPAC 组中，杏仁核度中心性较低，尤其是男性，在 10 个连续的阈值中都显示出了这种差异，而全局网络特性没有显著差异。在最低显著密度阈值下，杏仁核体积与海马体、壳核、额前和后扣带回、颞横回和距状皮层呈正相关，在低应激（p(FDR)<0.027），而不是高应激（p(FDR)>0.882）组中。虽然在高应激的 ALSPAC 组中，杏仁核度在所有阈值上都略有降低，但这些结果并不显著。
与童年创伤不同，产前应激可能会使 SCN 向以杏仁核为中心的模式转变，尤其是在男性中。这些发现并未在全男性的 ALSPAC 样本中得到复制，这可能是由于该样本年龄较小，产前应激暴露程度较低。
