Antenatal maternal anxiety modulates the BOLD response in 20-year-old men during endogenous cognitive control

Maternal anxiety during pregnancy is associated with weaker prefrontal functional connectivity in adult offspring

BACKGROUND

The connectome, constituting a unique fingerprint of a person's brain, may be influenced by its prenatal environment, potentially affecting later-life resilience and mental health.

METHODS

We conducted a prospective resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging study in 28-year-old offspring (N = 49) of mothers whose anxiety was monitored during pregnancy. Two offspring anxiety subgroups were defined: "High anxiety" (n = 13) group versus "low-to-medium anxiety" (n = 36) group, based on maternal self-reported state anxiety at 12-22 weeks of gestation. To predict resting-state functional connectivity of 32 by 32 ROIs, maternal state anxiety during pregnancy was included as a predictor in general linear models for both ROI-to-ROI and graph theoretical metrics. Sex, birth weight and postnatal anxiety were included as covariates.

RESULTS

Higher maternal anxiety was associated with weaker functional connectivity of medial prefrontal cortex with left inferior frontal gyrus (t = 3.45, pFDR < 0.05). Moreover, network-based statistics (NBS) confirmed our finding and revealed an additional association of weaker connectivity between left lateral prefontal cortex with left somatosensory motor gyrus in the offspring. While our results showed a general pattern of lower functional connectivity in adults prenatally exposed to maternal anxiety, we did not observe significant differences in global brain networks between groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Weaker (medial) prefrontal cortex functional connectivity in the high anxiety adult offspring group suggests a long-term negative impact of prenatal exposure to high maternal anxiety, extending into adulthood. To prevent mental health problems at population level, universal primary prevention strategies should aim at lowering maternal anxiety during pregnancy.

The Association Between Prenatal Maternal Stress and Adolescent Affective Outcomes is Mediated by Childhood Maltreatment and Adolescent Behavioral Inhibition System Sensitivity

Prenatal maternal stress is linked to offspring outcomes; however, there is little research on adolescents, behavioral, transdiagnostic outcomes, or the mechanisms through which relations operate. We examined, in N = 268 adolescents (Mage = 15.31 years; SD = 1.063; 57.8% boys) whether prenatal maternal stress is associated with adolescent affective outcomes; whether this association is mediated, serially, by childhood home atmosphere and adolescent behavioral inhibition system (BIS) sensitivity; and whether mediational effects are moderated by adolescent attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or maternal internalizing symptomology. Prenatal maternal daily stress and major life events were associated with adolescent outcomes through childhood negative atmosphere/neglect and BIS sensitivity, with no evidence of moderation. Results have implications regarding the effect of prenatal maternal stress on offspring outcomes and regarding corresponding sensitive periods.

Neurocognitive development of novelty and error monitoring in children and adolescents

The abilities to monitor one's actions and novel information in the environment are crucial for behavioural and cognitive control. This study investigated the development of error and novelty monitoring and their electrophysiological correlates by using a combined flanker with novelty-oddball task in children (7-12 years) and adolescents (14-18 years). Potential moderating influences of prenatal perturbation of steroid hormones on these performance monitoring processes were explored by comparing individuals who were prenatally exposed and who were not prenatally exposed to synthetic glucocorticoids (sGC). Generally, adolescents performed more accurately and faster than children. However, behavioural adaptations to error or novelty, as reflected in post-error or post-novelty slowing, showed different developmental patterns. Whereas post-novelty slowing could be observed in children and adolescents, error-related slowing was absent in children and was marginally significant in adolescents. Furthermore, the amplitude of error-related negativity was larger in adolescents, whereas the amplitude of novelty-related N2 was larger in children. These age differences suggest that processes involving top-down processing of task-relevant information (for instance, error monitoring) mature later than processes implicating bottom-up processing of salient novel stimuli (for instance, novelty monitoring). Prenatal exposure to sGC did not directly affect performance monitoring but initial findings suggest that it might alter brain-behaviour relation, especially for novelty monitoring.

Stronger connectivity and higher extraversion protect against stress-related deterioration of cognitive functions

Here we attempted to define the relationship between: EEG activity, personality and coping during lockdown. We were in a unique situation since the COVID-19 outbreak interrupted our independent longitudinal study. We already collected a significant amount of data before lockdown. During lockdown, a subgroup of participants willingly continued their engagement in the study. These circumstances provided us with an opportunity to examine the relationship between personality/cognition and brain rhythms in individuals who continued their engagement during lockdown compared to control data collected well before pandemic. The testing consisted of a one-time assessment of personality dimensions and two sessions of EEG recording and deductive reasoning task. Participants were divided into groups based on the time they completed the second session: before or during the COVID-19 outbreak ‘Pre-pandemic Controls’ and ‘Pandemics’, respectively. The Pandemics were characterized by a higher extraversion and stronger connectivity, compared to Pre-pandemic Controls. Furthermore, the Pandemics improved their cognitive performance under long-term stress as compared to the Pre-Pandemic Controls matched for personality traits to the Pandemics. The Pandemics were also characterized by increased EEG connectivity during lockdown. We posit that stronger EEG connectivity and higher extraversion could act as a defense mechanism against stress-related deterioration of cognitive functions.

The Effects of Early Life Stress on the Brain and Behaviour: Insights From Zebrafish Models

The early life period represents a window of increased vulnerability to stress, during which exposure can lead to long-lasting effects on brain structure and function. This stress-induced developmental programming may contribute to the behavioural changes observed in mental illness. In recent decades, rodent studies have significantly advanced our understanding of how early life stress (ELS) affects brain development and behaviour. These studies reveal that ELS has long-term consequences on the brain such as impairment of adult hippocampal neurogenesis, altering learning and memory. Despite such advances, several key questions remain inadequately answered, including a comprehensive overview of brain regions and molecular pathways that are altered by ELS and how ELS-induced molecular changes ultimately lead to behavioural changes in adulthood. The zebrafish represents a novel ELS model, with the potential to contribute to answering some of these questions. The zebrafish offers some important advantages such as the ability to non-invasively modulate stress hormone levels in a whole animal and to visualise whole brain activity in freely behaving animals. This review discusses the current status of the zebrafish ELS field and its potential as a new ELS model.