Prenatal maternal depression alters amygdala functional connectivity in 6-month-old infants

Abstract

Prenatal maternal depression is associated with alterations in the neonatal amygdala microstructure, shedding light on the timing for the influence of prenatal maternal depression on the brain structure of the offspring. This study aimed to examine the association between prenatal maternal depressive symptomatology and infant amygdala functional connectivity and to thus establish the neural functional basis for the transgenerational transmission of vulnerability for affective disorders during prenatal development. Twenty-four infants were included in this study with both structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) at 6 months of age. Maternal depression was assessed at 26 weeks of gestation and 3 months after delivery using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Linear regression was used to identify the amygdala functional networks and to examine the associations between prenatal maternal depressive symptoms and amygdala functional connectivity. Our results showed that at 6 months of age, the amygdala is functionally connected to widespread brain regions, forming the emotional regulation, sensory and perceptual, and emotional memory networks. After controlling for postnatal maternal depressive symptoms, infants born to mothers with higher prenatal maternal depressive symptoms showed greater functional connectivity of the amygdala with the left temporal cortex and insula, as well as the bilateral anterior cingulate, medial orbitofrontal and ventromedial prefrontal cortices, which are largely consistent with patterns of connectivity observed in adolescents and adults with major depressive disorder. Our study provides novel evidence that prenatal maternal depressive symptomatology alters the amygdala's functional connectivity in early postnatal life, which reveals that the neuroimaging correlates of the familial transmission of phenotypes associated with maternal mood are apparent in infants at 6 months of age.

The Placenta as a Mediator of Stress Effects on Neurodevelopmental Reprogramming

“…These studies reported delayed overall brain growth, limbic systemspecific volumetric changes, and white matter abnormalities (Li et al, 2012;Lou et al, 1994;Qiu et al, 2013Qiu et al, , 2015Rifkin-Graboi et al, 2013). Such early observations appear to persist into childhood and adolescence, are correlated with affective problems, and may contribute to symptoms in patients with schizophrenia and autism (Buss et al, 2010(Buss et al, , 2012Davis et al, 2013;Du et al, 2013;Sarkar et al, 2014;Zikopoulos and Barbas, 2010).…”

The emergence of functional architecture during early brain development

“…A small rsfMRI study in six-month old infants (n=24) reported stronger functional connectivity of the amygdala seed region with distributed brain areas of the limbic system and medial prefrontal cortex when their mothers had reported more severe depressive symptoms during the second trimester of pregnancy. Details on maternal psychoactive drug use that may have influenced the observed effects were not reported (Qiu et al, 2015). A recent DWI study described widespread reductions in white matter microstructural maturation of predominantly corticofugal and corticothalamic projection fibers in 20 newborn infants of depressed mothers who had used SSRIs during pregnancy compared to healthy matched control infants.…”

The Neurobiology of Attachment: From Infancy to Clinical Outcomes

“…Even before birth, the fetal amygdala is affected by his mother's affect (Qiu et al, 2015). Specifically, both depression and cortisol spikes in the mother during pregnancy have been shown to decrease the size of the amygdala later in the infant (Qiu et al, 2015).…”

“…Specifically, both depression and cortisol spikes in the mother during pregnancy have been shown to decrease the size of the amygdala later in the infant (Qiu et al, 2015). The amygdala matures at six to seven months of age (Vela, 2014).…”