Maturation of the human fetal startle response: Evidence for sex-specific maturation of the human fetus

Buß, Claudia; Davis, Elizabeth L.; Class, Quetzal A.; Gierczak, Matt; Pattillo, Carol; Glynn, Laura M.; Sandman, Curt A.

doi:10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2009.08.001

Cited by 78 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Weight correlates positively with responses in terms of change in fetal heart rate. Gender comparison results also supports [18] that the male fetus matures earlier than female.…”

Section: International Journal Of Computer Applications (0975 -888) Vsupporting

confidence: 65%

Experimental Study to Evaluate the Significance of Musical Stimuli in Reorientation of Fetal Head Position

Amir¹,

Hashmani²,

Chowdhry³

et al. 2012

IJCA

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The effect of music on fetal behavior and deploying music therapy to reorient the breech baby has been reported. This study aims to statistically evaluate the degree of significance of using music for such applications. It is hypothesized that the musical stimulus can elicit enough fetal response to make it change its position. Quad-instrumental is composed and applied to the mother's abdomen near the fetal head in controlled environment. The fetal basic parameters such as fetal age, fetal weight, gender, etc. are observed and the type of instrument that causes the maximum change is recorded. Out of the 46 subjects there were 32 female and 14 male fetuses. Thirteen showed displacement when stimulus was moved away from the head. The percentage of success is 28.2 hence not positive but still helpful to analyze the parametric differences between favorable and unfavorable outcomes in terms of displacement. Overall, responses of the fetuses to the given stimulus were positive and discussed. While the success rate is lower than expected, this study examined many factors that could influence the displacement results. The experiment results do not support the hypothesis that musical instruments can consistently elicit head movements from fetuses.

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“…Weight correlates positively with responses in terms of change in fetal heart rate. Gender comparison results also supports [18] that the male fetus matures earlier than female.…”

Section: International Journal Of Computer Applications (0975 -888) Vsupporting

confidence: 65%

Experimental Study to Evaluate the Significance of Musical Stimuli in Reorientation of Fetal Head Position

Amir¹,

Hashmani²,

Chowdhry³

et al. 2012

IJCA

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“…There are several examples in the animal and human literature to suggest many prenatal insults produce outcome-specific sexually dimorphic developmental consequences (33,60,(62)(63)(64). Mechanisms that have been discussed in this context include the presence of sex-specific placental adaptation to stress exposure (65) and the notion of increased susceptibility of the female brain to its milieu given the more rapid neurodevelopmental trajectory in females compared with males (66,67).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal cortisol over the course of pregnancy and subsequent child amygdala and hippocampus volumes and affective problems

Buß

Davis²,

Shahbaba³

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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535

496

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Stress-related variation in the intrauterine milieu may impact brain development and emergent function, with long-term implications in terms of susceptibility for affective disorders. Studies in animals suggest limbic regions in the developing brain are particularly sensitive to exposure to the stress hormone cortisol. However, the nature, magnitude, and time course of these effects have not yet been adequately characterized in humans. A prospective, longitudinal study was conducted in 65 normal, healthy mother-child dyads to examine the association of maternal cortisol in early, mid-, and late gestation with subsequent measures at approximately 7 y age of child amygdala and hippocampus volume and affective problems. After accounting for the effects of potential confounding pre-and postnatal factors, higher maternal cortisol levels in earlier but not later gestation was associated with a larger right amygdala volume in girls (a 1 SD increase in cortisol was associated with a 6.4% increase in right amygdala volume), but not in boys. Moreover, higher maternal cortisol levels in early gestation was associated with more affective problems in girls, and this association was mediated, in part, by amygdala volume. No association between maternal cortisol in pregnancy and child hippocampus volume was observed in either sex. The current findings represent, to the best of our knowledge, the first report linking maternal stress hormone levels in human pregnancy with subsequent child amygdala volume and affect. The results underscore the importance of the intrauterine environment and suggest the origins of neuropsychiatric disorders may have their foundations early in life.developmental programming | fetal origins | hypothalamus-pituitaryadrenal axis | depression | emotion regulation

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“…One explanation is possible maturational delay in male fetuses compared to females (Buss et al 2009), or different growth strategies, with female fetuses limiting growth in benefit of maintaining resource reserves (Clifton 2010). Different immune function in women carrying a female fetus has also been described, showing women carrying female fetuses have greater stimulated production of interleukin(L)-6, tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-α and IL-1-β (Mitchell et al 2017) and greater susceptibility to asthma exacerbations (Bakhireva et al 2008).…”

Section: Biological Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of cortisol during pregnancy – The ABCD cohort

Bleker

Roseboom

Vrijkotte

et al. 2017

Psychoneuroendocrinology

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Please cite this article as: Bleker, Laura S., Roseboom, Tessa J., Vrijkotte, Tanja G., Reynolds, Rebecca M., de Rooij, Susanne R., Determinants of Cortisol During Pregnancy − the ABCD Cohort.Psychoneuroendocrinology http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j.psyneuen.2017.05.026 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. later adverse health consequences. However, evidence linking maternal stress to maternal cortisol values during pregnancy is inconclusive. A possible explanation for this is that other maternal factors overshadow any potential effects of stress on cortisol levels. We studied a large cohort of pregnant women with extensive data on pregnancy characteristics to determine the respective contributions of biological, environmental and psychosocial stress factors to cortisol levels in pregnancy. Methods:We used data from 3039 women from the Amsterdam Born Children and their Development-study cohort. Serum cortisol was measured in blood, collected at the first prenatal visit, at different gestational ages (median=91 days, range=40-256 days), and at various time points during the day (median=11:45h, range=08:00 -18:30h). We assessed associations between maternal serum cortisol in pregnancy and biological factors, lifestyle factors and stress factors, including depression, anxiety, pregnancy-related anxiety, work stress, parenting stress and fatigue. Results:In multivariable analysis, variables that were associated with higher cortisol levels in pregnancy were lower maternal age [1.5 nmol/l, 95%CI (0.6 to 2. Conclusions: Our data suggest that maternal cortisol during pregnancy is mainly affected by biological and lifestyle factors, but not by psychosocial factors. We suggest that psychosocial stress in Laura S. Bleker 3 pregnancy might program the fetus through other mechanisms than through altering maternal cortisol levels.

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Maturation of the human fetal startle response: Evidence for sex-specific maturation of the human fetus

Cited by 78 publications

References 50 publications

Experimental Study to Evaluate the Significance of Musical Stimuli in Reorientation of Fetal Head Position

Experimental Study to Evaluate the Significance of Musical Stimuli in Reorientation of Fetal Head Position

Maternal cortisol over the course of pregnancy and subsequent child amygdala and hippocampus volumes and affective problems

Determinants of cortisol during pregnancy – The ABCD cohort

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