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Cited by 52Stress Responses and CortisolChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentMaternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum

Infants of mothers with higher physiological stress show alterations in brain function

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Troller‐Renfree, Sonya V., Brito, Natalie H., Desai, Pooja M., Leon‐Santos, Ana G., Wiltshire, Cynthia A., Motton, Summer N., Meyer, Jerrold S., Isler, Joseph +2 more·2020·Developmental Science
DOI 10.1111/desc.12976PMC PMC9126078
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Abstract

Chronic stress has been increasingly linked with aberrations in children's behavioral, cognitive, and social development, yet the effect of chronic physiological stress on neural development during the first year of life is largely unknown. The present study aims to link a physiological index of chronic stress (maternal hair cortisol concentration) to maturational differences in infant functional brain development during the first year of life. Participants were 94 mother‐infant dyads. To index chronic physiological stress, maternal hair samples were assayed for the previous three months’ cortisol output. To examine the development of brain function during the first year of life, six‐to‐twelve‐month‐old infants (N = 94) completed a resting electroencephalography (EEG) recording. Infants of mothers with evidence of higher physiological stress showed increased relative low‐frequency (theta) power and reduced relative high‐frequency (alpha, high‐gamma) power, compared to infants of mothers with evidence of low physiological stress. This pattern of findings is consistent with other studies suggesting that early life stress may lead to alterations in patterns of infant brain development. These findings are important given that maturational lags in brain development can be long‐lasting and are associated with deficits in cognitive and emotional development. The present research also suggests that reducing maternal physiological stress may be a useful target for future interventions aiming to foster neurodevelopment during the first year of life.

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  • In a different infant sample, maternal physiological stress was negatively associated with relative gamma while showing no association with absolute gamma.

    “in a different infant sample, maternal physiological stress was negatively associated with relative gamma while showing no association with absolute gamma (Troller-Renfree, Brito, and Desai 2020).”

    From Early Family Experiences and Neural Activity in Rural Pakistani Children: The Differential Role of Gender (2024) · cites this paper as Troller-Renfree, Brito, and Desai 2020

    The Results section reports that higher maternal hair cortisol was significantly associated with lower infant relative high-gamma power. The Methods section says absolute-power results are in Supporting Information S2, but no passage in our copy reports whether maternal physiological stress was associated with absolute gamma power. That part of the claim is therefore unsupported by the available text. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Cited by

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Authors
Troller‐Renfree, S. V., Brito, N. H., Desai, P. M., Leon‐Santos, A. G., Wiltshire, C. A., Motton, S. N., Meyer, J. S., Isler, J., Fifer, W. P., & Noble, K. G.
Affiliations
  • Columbia University (US)
  • New York University (US)
  • NORC at the University of Chicago Bethesda MD USA
  • University of Massachusetts Amherst (US)
  • Columbia University Irving Medical Center (US)
Corresponding author
Noble, Kimberly G.
ORCID
Venue
Developmental Science
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2020-05-13
Volume
23
Issue
6
Pages
e12976-e12976
ISSN
  • 1363-755X (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-7687
DOI
10.1111/desc.12976
PMC
PMC9126078
OpenAlex
W3018255919
Cited by
52
References
12
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 2
FWCI
3.76
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • Developmental Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
Russell Sage Foundation
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
Keywords
hair cortisol, infant brain development, early life stress, theta power, alpha power, high-gamma power, resting-state EEG, brain development, first year of life, mother-infant dyads
MeSH terms
Brain, Child, Child Development, Female, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Infant, Mother-Child Relations, Mothers, Stress, Physiological, Stress, Psychological

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