Associations Between Prenatal Stress, Maternal Anxiety, and Infant Functional Connectivity
Poster No:
1260
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Jenna Chin1, Haitao Chen2, Wei Gao3, Pilyoung Kim1
Institutions:
1University of Denver, Denver, CO, 2Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, 3Biomedical Imaging Research Institute (BIRI), Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
There is emerging evidence demonstrating associations between prenatal stress and infant brain outcomes. However, studies examining the specific role of prenatal life events in shaping infant functional connectivity (FC) remain limited. It is also unclear how prenatal psychological distress may interact with stressful event exposure. Here we use resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) to examine the effects of stressful event exposure and gestational parent anxiety symptoms on amygdala (amyg)–anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) FC, a neural circuit with known stress-related alterations.
Methods:
Participants were 56 gestational parent–infant dyads. Gestational parents (M age=29.86, SD=5.51 years) were recruited for a longitudinal study of pregnancy. Prenatal stress was measured at three prenatal time points using a Life Events Interview (Lobel et al., 1992). Participants rated the severity of endorsed events from neither negative nor undesirable (1) to extremely negative or undesirable (5). Severity scores were summed to compute severity-weighted life event totals. To assess prenatal anxiety symptoms, gestational parents completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory at three prenatal time points (Spielberger, 1989). Scores across the three prenatal time points were averaged to create a composite prenatal anxiety score. Infants completed a rs-fMRI scan (M=32.31, SD=16.14 days).
Amyg to ACC FC values were computed based on the infant 2-year AAL atlas (Shi et al., 2011). The average fMRI time series for each ROI were calculated by averaging the time series across all voxels within the region. Pair-wise correlations were calculated and values were Fisher-Z transformed. First, associations between each ROI to ROI FC (i.e., left amyg–left ACC, left amyg–right ACC, right amyg–left ACC, right amyg–right ACC) and prenatal stress were tested using four separate regressions. All analyses controlled for infant postnatal age and sex. We then tested whether gestational parent prenatal anxiety symptoms mediated significant associations between prenatal stress and infant rs-FC.
Amyg to ACC FC values were computed based on the infant 2-year AAL atlas (Shi et al., 2011). The average fMRI time series for each ROI were calculated by averaging the time series across all voxels within the region. Pair-wise correlations were calculated and values were Fisher-Z transformed. First, associations between each ROI to ROI FC (i.e., left amyg–left ACC, left amyg–right ACC, right amyg–left ACC, right amyg–right ACC) and prenatal stress were tested using four separate regressions. All analyses controlled for infant postnatal age and sex. We then tested whether gestational parent prenatal anxiety symptoms mediated significant associations between prenatal stress and infant rs-FC.
Results:
Higher prenatal stress, operationalized as severity-weighted stressful life event totals, was associated with decreased left amyg–left ACC FC values (B= -.294, SE = .002, p =.030; Fig. 1a) and decreased right amyg–left ACC FC values (B= -.312, SE = .002, p =.021; Fig. 1b). Prenatal stress was not significantly associated with left amyg–right ACC FC or right amyg–right ACC FC. The effect of prenatal stressful events on infant left amyg–left ACC was fully mediated by prenatal anxiety symptoms, such that the indirect effect of prenatal stressful events on left amyg–left ACC FC was significant (b = -.003, [-.0053, -.0003]; Fig. 2a). The remaining direct effect of prenatal stressful events on left amyg–left ACC was not significant. We did not find evidence that the effect of prenatal stress on infant right amyg–left ACC was mediated by prenatal anxiety symptoms (Fig. 2b).
·Associations between prenatal severity-weighted stressful life events and left amygdala–left ACC (A) and right amygdala–left ACC (B)
·Path model of mediation analysis of severity-weighted stressful life events predicting left amygdala–left ACC (A) and right amygdala–left ACC (B). Note: analyses included infant postnatal age at scan
Conclusions:
We found evidence that prenatal stress characterized as severity-weighted stressful life events is associated with infant functional connectivity. We also found evidence that gestational parent prenatal anxiety symptoms may mediate this relationship. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on prenatal stress exposure and the functional connectivity of emotional circuits in infants and highlight the prenatal period as target for interventions that improve infant and family well-being.
Lifespan Development:
Early life, Adolescence, Aging 1
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Connectivity (eg. functional, effective, structural)
Task-Independent and Resting-State Analysis 2
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
BOLD fMRI
Keywords:
Anxiety
FUNCTIONAL MRI
PEDIATRIC
Other - Infant; Prenatal Stress; Resting-State; Functional Connectivity
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Provide references using author date format
Spielberger, C.D. (1989) State-Trait Anxiety Inventory: Bibliography. 2nd Edition, Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto.