Maternal Depressive Symptoms During Pregnancy and Brain Age in Young Adult Offspring: Findings from a Prenatal Birth Cohort
Open accessAbstract
Maternal depression during pregnancy is associated with elevated risk of anxiety and depression in offspring, but the mechanisms are incompletely understood. Here we conducted a neuroimaging follow-up of a prenatal birth cohort from the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (n = 131; 53% women, age 23–24) to test whether deviations from age-normative structural brain development in young adulthood may partially underlie this link. Structural brain age was calculated based on previously published neuroanatomical age prediction models using cortical thickness maps from healthy controls aged 6–89. Brain age gap was computed as the difference between chronological and structural brain age. Participants also completed self-report measures of anxiety and mood dysregulation. Further, mothers of a subset of participants (n = 103, 54% women) answered a self-report questionnaire in 1990–1992 about depressive symptoms during pregnancy. Higher exposure to maternal depressive symptoms in utero showed a linear relationship with elevated brain age gap, which showed a quadratic relationship with anxiety and mood dysregulation in the young adult offspring. Our findings suggest that exposure to maternal depressive symptoms in utero may be associated with accelerated brain maturation and that deviations from age-normative structural brain development in either direction predict more anxiety and dysregulated mood in young adulthood.
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In adult offspring, prenatal maternal stress and depression are linked to increased cortical gyrification index in the temporal region and the brain age gap.
“In adult offspring, prenatal maternal stress and depression are linked to increased cortical gyrification index in the temporal region and the brain age gap (i.e., the differences between chronological and structural brain age).”
From Brain structural and functional outcomes in the offspring of women experiencing psychological distress during pregnancy (2024) · cites this paper as [29]
The Results section, “Maternal Depression During Pregnancy and Brain Age Gap in Young Adult Offspring” (page not available), reports a positive association between prenatal maternal depressive symptoms and brain age gap in young adult offspring. The paper does not report an increased temporal-region cortical gyrification index or establish the claimed brain-age-gap link for prenatal maternal stress generally. (LLM, conf=0.89)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThese brain changes are further related to adult mood disturbances.
“These brain changes are further related to adult mood disturbances [29, 30].”
From Brain structural and functional outcomes in the offspring of women experiencing psychological distress during pregnancy (2024) · cites this paper as [29]
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Wu, Y., De Asis-Cruz, J., & Limperopoulos, C. (2024) · Molecular Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/s41380-024-02449-0 · Cited by 124 · see citing works
- Authors
- Mareckova, K., Marecek, R., Andryskova, L., Brazdil, M., & Nikolova, Y. S.
- Affiliations
- Brain and Mind Research, Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University (CEITEC MU), Brno 62500, Czech Republic
- RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno 62500, Czech Republic
- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Nikolova, Yuliya S
- ORCID
- Nikolova, Yuliya S
- Venue
- Cerebral Cortex
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2020-02-28
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 3991-3999
- ISSN
- 1047-3211 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2199
- OpenAlex
- W3006772828
- Cited by
- 32
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 2.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model (vor)
- Locations
- Cerebral Cortex (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship for Career Development (FP7-IEF-2013, #6485124)
- Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (LQ1601, LM2015051)
- Central European Institute of Technology
- Masaryk University
- MEYS CR (LM2015062)
- ERDF (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_013/0001775)
- CAMH Foundation
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Birth, Development, and Health
- Keywords
- maternal depression, antenatal depression, brain age gap, structural brain development, anxiety, mood dysregulation, offspring mental health, prenatal exposure, cortical thickness, neuroimaging
- MeSH terms
- Brain Cortical Thickness, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Anxiety, Brain, Child, Depression, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Complications, Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects, Mood Disorders, Young Adult
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