Maternal childhood maltreatment: associations to offspring brain volume and white matter connectivity
Year: 2023
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The deleterious effects of adversity are likely intergenerational, such that one generation’s adverse experiences can affect the next. Epidemiological studies link maternal adversity to offspring depression and anxiety, possibly via transmission mechanisms that influence offspring fronto-limbic connectivity. However, studies have not thoroughly disassociated postnatal exposure effects nor considered the role of offspring sex. We utilized infant neuroimaging to test the hypothesis that maternal childhood maltreatment (CM) would be associated with increased fronto-limbic connectivity in infancy and tested brain-behavior associations in childhood. Ninety-two dyads participated (32 mothers with CM, 60 without; 52 infant females, 40 infant males). Women reported on their experiences of CM and non-sedated sleeping infants underwent MRIs at 2.44 ± 2.74 weeks. Brain volumes were estimated via structural MRI and white matter structural connectivity (fiber counts) via diffusion MRI with probabilistic tractography. A subset of parents (n = 36) reported on children’s behaviors at age 5.17 ± 1.73 years. Males in the maltreatment group demonstrated greater intra-hemispheric fronto-limbic connectivity (b = 0.96, p= 0.008, [95%CI 0.25, 1.66]), no differences emerged for females. Fronto-limbic connectivity was related to somatic complaints in childhood only for males (r = 0.673, p = 0.006). Our findings suggest that CM could have intergenerational associations to offspring brain development, yet mechanistic studies are needed.
Authors: Claudia Lugo-Candelas, Le Chang, Jordan D. Dworkin, Natalie Aw, Andrea Fields, Hannah Reed, Marisa Spann, Michelle A. Gilchrist, Walter Hinds, Rachel Marsh, William P. Fifer, Myrna Weissman, Bernd Uwe Foerster, Marina Giorgi Manin, Ivaldo Silva, Bradley Peterson, Ana Carolina Coelho Milani, Jay Gingrich, Catherine Monk, Cristiane S. Duarte, Andrea Jackowski, Jonathan Posner
Institutions: Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York State Psychiatric Institute, University of South Carolina, Federation of American Scientists, Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, Aurora Health Care, Thomas Jefferson University, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, University of Southern California, Duke University
Language: English
Topic: Child Abuse and Trauma
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Maternal adversity, inflammation, and neurodevelopment: How intergenerational processes perpetuate disadvantage in a low-resource setting, G1681577253, A longitudinal study of prenatal maternal obesity and the fetal origins of impulsivity in Puerto Rican children, Intergenerational Transmission of Deficits In Self-Regulatory Control, Serotonergic Modulation of Brain Development: Genetic and Pharmacologic Influenc, G8910038813
OpenAlex ID: W4386910573