Koyama Yuna, Tan Ai Peng, Sadikova Ekaterina, Setoh Peipei, Broekman Birit, Zhou Juan Helen, Gluckman Peter, Chen Helen, Tiemeier Henning
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Diagnostic Imaging, National University Hospital Singapore, Singapore 119074, Singapore; Department of Public Health, Institute of Science Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8510, Japan.
Department of Diagnostic Imaging, National University Hospital Singapore, Singapore 119074, Singapore; Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A⁎STAR), Singapore 138632, Singapore; Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117597, Singapore.
Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2025 Apr;72:101531. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2025.101531. Epub 2025 Feb 14.
Maternal depressive symptoms have been associated with offspring's brain structural differences. However, previous studies were limited by cross-sectional designs, brain region-of-interest analyses, or clinical samples. Importantly, few studies assessed the early childhood brain. This study analyzed data from a Singaporean cohort of 217 children with 589 repeated structural neuroimaging from 4.5 to 10.5 years (2-4 assessments) in relation to maternal depressive symptoms. Maternal depressive symptoms were measured by questionnaire at child age 4.5 years. Mixed models explored within-sample change accounting for non-linear brain development. Multiple testing was corrected, and a stringent threshold was applied. Maternal depressive symptoms were associated with persistently smaller precentral gyral volume over time (β = -0.162 [-0.238; -0.086], p < 0.001). In analysis with time interaction, maternal symptoms were associated with curvilinear changes in the volumes of supramarginal (β = -0.019 [-0.027; -0.010], p < 0.001) and precuneus gyrus (β = -0.016 [-0.025; -0.007], p = 0.007); this suggests delayed volumetric development in brain areas governing attention, memory, and language among children exposed to severe maternal symptoms. The findings implicate that childhood maternal depressive symptoms are associated with persistent differences in precentral volume and affect the brain volumetric development of complex sensory information processing regions, rather than in emotion regulation areas implicated in the depression experience. Our findings emphasize repeated childhood imaging to understand child brain development risk factors.
母亲的抑郁症状与后代大脑结构差异有关。然而，先前的研究受到横断面设计、脑感兴趣区域分析或临床样本的限制。重要的是，很少有研究评估幼儿大脑。本研究分析了来自新加坡一个队列的217名儿童的数据，这些儿童在4.5至10.5岁期间（进行了2至4次评估）接受了589次重复的结构性神经成像检查，这些数据与母亲的抑郁症状有关。母亲的抑郁症状在孩子4.5岁时通过问卷调查进行测量。混合模型探讨了样本内变化，同时考虑了非线性大脑发育。对多重检验进行了校正，并应用了严格的阈值。母亲的抑郁症状与中央前回体积随时间持续变小有关（β = -0.162 [-0.238; -0.086]，p < 0.001）。在时间交互分析中，母亲的症状与缘上回（β = -0.019 [-0.027; -0.010]，p < 0.001）和楔前回（β = -0.016 [-0.025; -0.007]，p = 0.007）体积的曲线变化有关；这表明，在暴露于严重母亲症状的儿童中，负责注意力、记忆和语言的脑区体积发育延迟。研究结果表明，儿童期母亲的抑郁症状与中央前回体积的持续差异有关，并影响复杂感觉信息处理区域的脑体积发育，而不是与抑郁体验中涉及的情绪调节区域有关。我们的研究结果强调了儿童期重复成像对于理解儿童大脑发育风险因素的重要性。
