Copeland Anni, Korja Riikka, Nolvi Saara, Rajasilta Olli, Pulli Elmo P, Kumpulainen Venla, Silver Eero, Saukko Ekaterina, Hakanen Hetti, Holmberg Eeva, Kataja Eeva-Leena, Häkkinen Suvi, Parkkola Riitta, Lähdesmäki Tuire, Karlsson Linnea, Karlsson Hasse, Tuulari Jetro J
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.
Front Neurosci. 2022 Sep 15;16:920995. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.920995. eCollection 2022.
The quality of mother-child interaction, especially maternal sensitivity in caregiving behavior, plays an important role in a child's later socioemotional development. Numerous studies have indicated associations between poor mother-child interaction and offspring brain structure and function, but more knowledge on how variation in the characteristics of early caregiving is associated with children's brain structure and function is needed. We investigated whether maternal sensitivity at 8 or 30 months is associated with functional connectivity in a child's brain at 5 years of age based on the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study (17 and 39 mother-child dyads at 8 and 30 months, respectively, with an overlap of 13 dyads). Maternal sensitivity was assessed during a free play interaction using the Emotional Availability Scales at 8 and 30 months of the children's age. Task-free functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was acquired at the age of 5 years in 7-min scans while watching the movie. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) maps were created from the fMRI data, and multiple regression analysis was performed to assess the relation between maternal sensitivity and ReHo. Maternal sensitivity at the age of 8 months was positively associated with children's ReHo values within the medial prefrontal cortex. Distal connectivity of this region showed no significant association with maternal sensitivity in a seed-based connectivity analysis. No associations were found between maternal sensitivity during toddlerhood and brain functional connectivity. Together, these results suggest that maternal sensitivity, especially in infancy, may influence offspring brain functional connectivity. However, studies with larger sample sizes are warranted.
母婴互动的质量，尤其是母亲在照料行为中的敏感性，在儿童后期的社会情感发展中起着重要作用。众多研究表明，不良的母婴互动与后代的脑结构和功能之间存在关联，但对于早期照料特征的变化如何与儿童的脑结构和功能相关联，还需要更多的了解。基于芬兰脑出生队列研究（分别在8个月和30个月时，有17对和39对母婴二元组，其中13对重叠），我们调查了8个月或30个月时母亲的敏感性是否与儿童5岁时大脑的功能连接有关。在儿童8个月和30个月大时，通过情感可及性量表在自由玩耍互动中评估母亲的敏感性。在5岁时，在观看电影的7分钟扫描过程中采集无任务功能磁共振成像（fMRI）数据。从fMRI数据创建局部一致性（ReHo）图，并进行多元回归分析以评估母亲敏感性与ReHo之间的关系。8个月大时母亲的敏感性与儿童内侧前额叶皮质内的ReHo值呈正相关。在基于种子的连接性分析中，该区域的远距离连接与母亲的敏感性无显著关联。在幼儿期母亲的敏感性与脑功能连接之间未发现关联。总之，这些结果表明，母亲的敏感性，尤其是在婴儿期，可能会影响后代的脑功能连接。然而，需要进行更大样本量的研究。
