Objective:

Maternal psychological stress during pregnancy is a common risk factor for psychiatric disorders in offspring, but little is known about how heterogeneity of stress trajectories during pregnancy affect brain systems and behavioral phenotypes in infancy. This study was designed to address this gap in knowledge.

Methods:

Maternal anxiety, stress, and depression were assessed at multiple time points during pregnancy in two independent low-risk mother-infant cohorts (N=115 and N=2,156). Trajectories in maternal stress levels in relation to infant negative affect were examined in both cohorts. Neonatal amygdala resting-state functional connectivity MRI was examined in a subset of one cohort (N=60) to explore the potential relationship between maternal stress trajectories and brain systems in infants relevant to negative affect.

Results:

Four distinct trajectory clusters, characterized by changing patterns of stress over time, and two magnitude clusters, characterized by severity of stress, were identified in the original mother-infant cohort (N=115). The magnitude clusters were not associated with infant outcomes. The trajectory characterized by increasing stress in late pregnancy was associated with blunted development of infant negative affect. This relationship was replicated in the second, larger cohort (N=2,156). In addition, the trajectories that included increasing or peak maternal stress in late pregnancy were related to stronger neonatal amygdala functional connectivity to the anterior insula and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in the exploratory analysis.

Conclusions:

The trajectory of maternal stress appears to be important for offspring brain and behavioral development. Understanding heterogeneity in trajectories of maternal stress and their influence on infant brain and behavioral development is critical to developing targeted interventions.

中文翻译：

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母亲围产期应激轨迹和负面影响以及后代杏仁核的发育

客观的：

怀孕期间母亲的心理压力是后代精神疾病的常见危险因素，但人们对怀孕期间压力轨迹的异质性如何影响婴儿期的大脑系统和行为表型知之甚少。本研究旨在解决这一知识差距。

方法：

在两个独立的低风险母婴队列（N=115 和 N=2,156）中，在怀孕期间的多个时间点对母亲的焦虑、压力和抑郁进行了评估。在两个队列中检查了与婴儿负面影响相关的母亲压力水平的轨迹。在一个队列的一个子集（N = 60）中检查了新生儿杏仁核静息态功能连接 MRI，以探索母亲压力轨迹和与负面情绪相关的婴儿大脑系统之间的潜在关系。

结果：

在原始母婴队列 (N=115) 中确定了四个不同的轨迹簇（以压力随时间变化的模式为特征）和两个强度簇（以压力的严重程度为特征）。震级集群与婴儿结局无关。以怀孕后期压力增加为特征的轨迹与婴儿负面情绪的发展迟缓有关。这种关系在第二个更大的队列中得到了复制（N=2,156）。此外，在探索性分析中，包括妊娠晚期母亲压力增加或达到峰值的轨迹与新生儿杏仁核与前岛叶和腹内侧前额叶皮质的功能连接更强有关。

结论：

母亲压力的轨迹似乎对后代的大脑和行为发育很重要。了解母亲压力轨迹的异质性及其对婴儿大脑和行为发育的影响对于制定有针对性的干预措施至关重要。