Maternal perinatal depression and its impact on emotion regulation in young adulthood

343 

Abstract Submission 

Klára Marečková¹, Filip Trbusek¹, Radek Marecek¹, Lenka Andryskova², Jan Chladek¹

¹CEITEC, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, ²RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Klára Marečková  
CEITEC, Masaryk University
Brno, Czech Republic

Filip Trbusek  
CEITEC, Masaryk University
Brno, Czech Republic

Radek Marecek  
CEITEC, Masaryk University
Brno, Czech Republic

Lenka Andryskova  
RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University
Brno, Czech Republic

Jan Chladek  
CEITEC, Masaryk University
Brno, Czech Republic

Maternal mental health during pregnancy and the first years after birth is essential for optimal brain development and mental health of the offspring. However, it is not clear whether higher levels of maternal depressive symptomatology at a specific time during the perinatal period might particularly alter the brain function and physiology during emotion regulation and lead to worse emotion regulation skills and more anxiety in young adulthood. It is also not clear whether sex of the offspring might moderate these long-term effects.

Participants included young adults from the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC), a prenatal birth cohort born in the Czech Republic between 1991-1992 (Piler et al., 2017), who took part in its neuroimaging follow-up at the age of 28-30 years. Maternal depressive symptoms were measured in the early 90s using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS; Cox et al., 1987) at 4 times: mid-pregnancy, 2 weeks after birth, 6 months after birth, and 18 months after birth. Structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was conducted using a 3T Siemens Prisma MRI scanner. Regulation of negative affect was studied using the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) fMRI task. Participants either observed the negative and neutral images or regulated their affective response. Skin conductance response (SCR) was collected during the fMRI task and participants' anxiety trait and emotion regulation skills were assessed using Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger et al., 1983) and the Emotion regulation questionnaire (Gross & John, 2003), respectively. A total of 163 participants (49% female) had perinatal maternal depression data from all 4 timepoints as well as the fMRI and behavioral data.
fMRI data were processed in SPM 12 and brain response during the (1) negative observe > neutral observe and (2) regulate > negative observe contrasts was extracted. Finally, a voxelwise multiple regression tested the effect of maternal depression (4 measurements) on brain response during the two contrasts. Interactions with sex were added as a covariate. SCR data were pre-processed in LedaLab and through-to-peak (TTP) analysis was used to extract for each contrast the number of significant SCR within the response window (nSCR), response latency, and the sum of the SCR amplitudes.

In women (but not men), maternal depression in mid-pregnancy predicted lower brain response during the regulate vs. negative observe contrast in left middle occipital cluster (Fig. 1A). In addition, women (but not men) exposed to maternal depression after birth had greater brain response during the regulate vs. negative observe contrast in right superior frontal cluster (Fig. 1B). Greater maternal depression after birth was also associated with higher SCR latency (AdjR2=0.10, p=0.02) and a higher sum of SCR amplitudes (AdjR2=0.05, p=0.04) during the regulate vs negative contrast in women (p>0.49). Moreover, greater SCR latency and sum of amplitudes in women during emotion regulation predicted greater brain response in the right frontal cluster. Further, greater brain response in the right frontal cluster predicted greater anxiety trait (R2=0.05, p=0.05) and greater emotion suppression R2=0.09, p=0.006) but not emotion reappraisal (p=0.220) in the young adult women. Moreover, we demonstrated that brain response in the right frontal cluster mediated the relationship between greater maternal depression after birth and greater suppression of emotions in young adulthood (ab=0.11, SE=0.05, 95% CI [0.016; 0.226]; Fig. 2).

These findings suggest that maternal depression after birth predisposes the female offspring to more anxiety, worse emotion regulation skills, and particularly to emotion supression in young adulthood, and that the latter relationship is mediated by greater brain response in the right frontal cluster during the emotion regulation.

Neurodevelopmental/ Early Life (eg. ADHD, autism) ¹

Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia) ²

Social Neuroscience Other

Emotion and Motivation Other

Lifespan Development Other

Other - maternal depression; perinatal period; sex; emotion regulation; anxiety; fMRI; prenatal birth cohort; young adulthood; emotion supression; mediaiton;