Functional and Anatomic Consequences of Diabetic Pregnancy on Memory in Ten-Year-Old Children

Abstract

Objective Pregnancies complicated by diabetes mellitus impair offspring memory functions during infancy and early childhood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the long term consequences of such pregnancies on memory and memory-related brain regions in 10-year-old children. Method Nineteen (19) children of diabetic mothers (CDMs) and thirty-five (35) children of non-diabetic mothers participated in this 10 year follow-up study. Memory performance was assessed using a continuous recognition memory task during which children made old/new judgments in response to pictures of concrete and abstract objects presented after different lags or delays. In addition, the volume of the hippocampal formation was measured using high resolution structural images. Results At 10 years of age, recognition memory performance of CDMs did not differ from children of non-diabetic mothers. Similarly, the volume of the hippocampal formation did not differ between groups. However, the size of the hippocampal formation in CDMs predicted the time those children needed to provide accurate responses in the continuous recognition memory task. Conclusion CDMs do not show memory impairments by 10 years of age, despite evidence for such impairments early in life. However, subtle differences in underlying neural processes may still be present. These results have important implications for long-term cognitive development of CDMs.

Sex differences in the association between prenatal exposure to maternal obesity and hippocampal volume in children

“…In vivo structural neuroimaging provides a noninvasive methodology for investigating neuronal volume indirectly via gray matter volume quantification (Pohlack et al, ). Prior studies have used structural MRI to measure hippocampal volume in pediatric populations (Barnea‐Goraly et al, ; Bauer et al, ; Hershey et al, ; Jabès et al, ; Mestre et al, ; Plessen et al, ) and found reduced hippocampal volume in children with diabetes and metabolic syndrome (Bruehl, Sweat, Tirsi, Shah, & Convit, ; Yau, Castro, Tagani, Tsui, & Convit, ). Here, we used structural MRI methods to examine the effects of prenatal exposure to maternal obesity on hippocampal volume in children.…”

“…The linear regression models were unadjusted models (Model 1), and models adjusting for ICV (Model 2), ICV and child age (Model 3), and with additional adjustments for SES and exposure to maternal GDM (Model 4), and additionally, child BMI z ‐score (Model 5). These covariates were previously shown to influence hippocampal volume and thus were added to the model to control for potential confounding (Bauer et al, ; Hair, Hanson, Wolfe, & Pollak, ; Jabès, Thomas, Langworthy, Georgieff, & Nelson, ; Krogsrud et al, ; Mestre et al, ; Uematsu et al, ). Since the majority (93%) of children were prepubertal (Tanner stage < 2), Tanner stage was not adjusted in the regression models.…”

Selective morphological and volumetric alterations in the hippocampus of children exposed in utero to gestational diabetes mellitus

“…In other rodent models of GDM, where pregnant rats were treated with Streptozotocin to induce betacell toxicity, GDM-exposed offspring had reduced CA1 and CA3 neuronal density compared to unexposed offspring, which further suggests that the GDM prenatal environment adversely affects hippocampal structure, particularly the CA1 and CA3 subfields (Golalipour, Kafshgiri, & Ghafari, 2012;Lotfi, Hami, Hosseini, Haghir, & Haghir, 2016). However, the limited evidence from a single human study did not find a significant relationship between hippocampal volume and prenatal GDM-exposure in 10-year-old children (Jabès, Thomas, Langworthy, Georgieff, & Nelson, 2015). This apparent discrepancy may be attributed to the lack of granularity typically afforded by in vivo volumetric neuroimaging studies.…”

Pilot study of EEG in neonates born to mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus

“…Abnormalities of electroencephalography (EEG) patterns were reported in infants of diabetic mothers compared to infants of control mothers (Castro Conde et al, 2013; Jabes et al, 2015; Deregnier et al, 2000). From birth to one year of age, two studies described EEG patterns of newborns or infants born to diabetic mothers compared to infants born to control mothers.…”