Maternal antenatal depression and deviations from normative brain development in the offspring
Poster No:
943
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Klara Mareckova1, Radek Mareček1, Lenka Andryskova2, Milan Brazdil1, Yuliya Nikolova3
Institutions:
1CEITEC, Masaryk University, Brno, South Moravia, 2RECETOX, Masaryk University, Brno, South Moravia, 3Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Maternal mental health during pregnancy is an important factor for optimal brain development in the offspring. Our previous research showed that greater exposure to maternal depression in utero was associated with accelerated global cortical brain aging in young adulthood (Mareckova et al., 2020; 2023). However, it is not clear whether maternal antenatal depression might also predict deviations from the normative development of the surface area, cortical thickness, and volume of subcortical structures in the offspring, whether these associations might differ between men and women, and whether the outcomes stay stable throughout the third decade of life.
Methods:
We performed two neuroimaging follow-ups of the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC) prenatal birth cohort in young adulthood and tested whether exposure to maternal depression in utero might be associated with deviations from normative brain development. Maternal depression in mid-pregnancy was assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) in 1991-1992. Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was conducted in the young adult offspring at 23-24 and 28-30 years using the same T1-weighted sequence at 3T Siemens Prisma MRI scanner. A total of 197 participants (100 men) had complete data from the late 20s and a subset of these (n=85; 43 men) had also complete data from the early 20s. Freesurfer was used to calculate cortical thickness and surface area in the 68 regions from the Desikan-Killiany (DK) atlas and volumes of the 14 subcortical regions from the Aseg atlas. Next, these data were compared with the normative brain development modeled with the CentilesBrain (Ge et al, 2024), which is based on 37407 MRI images from individuals 3-90 years old, and z-scores were calculated. Finally, we evaluated possible interactions between maternal antenatal depression and sex on deviations from the normative brain development in the early and late 20s. Multiple comparisons were corrected with False Discovery Rate (FDR) method.
Results:
Maternal antenatal depression interacted with sex and predicted deviations from normative volume of left (L) (beta=0.19, FDRp=0.03) and right (R) (beta=22, FDRp=0.01) thalamus and R nucleus accumbens (beta=0.24, FDRp=0.009) in the late 20s (Fig. 1). In women (but not men), greater exposure to maternal depression in utero was associated with smaller than typical L (R2=0.05, p=0.04) and R (R2=0.08, p=0.005) thalamus. In men (but not women), greater exposure to maternal depression in utero was associated with larger than typical R nucleus accumbens (R2=0.08, p=0.004). These interactions were observed in the young adults also in their early 20s (L thalamus: beta=0.29, FDRp=0.04; R thalamus: beta=30, FDRp=0.04; R nucleus accumbens: beta=0.30, FDRp=0.04; L nucleus accumbens: beta=0.28, FDRp=0.04; Fig. 1). Moreover, these effects were even larger in the early 20s (women L thalamus: R2=0.31, p=0.0001; women R thalamus: R2=0.26, p=0.0006; men R accumbens: R2=0.09, p=0.05; men L accumbens: R2=0.10, p=0.03). There were no effects of maternal antenatal depression or any interactions with sex on deviations from normative development of cortical thickness or surface area of the 68 DK atlas regions (FDRp>0.17).
·Maternal antenatal depression and deviations from normative development of thalamus and nucleus accumbens
Conclusions:
Young adults exposed to maternal depression in utero showed deviations from the normative development of thalamus and nucleus accumbens and these effects were stable throughout the third decade of life. Greater exposure to maternal depression in utero was associated with a smaller than typical thalamus in women and with larger than typical nucleus accumbens in men. Given the importance of thalamus in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder (Nugent et al., 2014) and the critical role of nucleus accumbens in reward and motivation (Chen et al., 2023), altered development of these subcortical structures might contribute to a higher risk of depression.
Brain Stimulation:
Non-invasive Magnetic/TMS
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia)
Lifespan Development:
Early life, Adolescence, Aging 1
Lifespan Development Other 2
Keywords:
Development
MRI
Thalamus
Other - normative brain development; CentilesBrain model; nucleus accumbens; antenatal depression; young adulthood; prenatal birth cohort; longitudinal;
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Provide references using APA citation style.
Ge, R.. et al. (2024). Normative modelling of brain morphometry across the lifespan with Centile Brain: algorithm benchmarking and model optimisation. The Lancet Digital Health, 6 (3): e211-e221.
Mareckova, K. et al. (2020) Maternal Depressive Symptoms During Pregnancy and Brain Age in Young Adult Offspring: Findings from a Prenatal Birth Cohort. Cereb Cortex, 30(7): 3991-3999.
Mareckova K. et al. (2023). Association of Maternal Depression During Pregnancy and Recent Stress With Brain Age Among Adult Offspring. JAMA Network Open, 6(1): e2254581.
Nugent, A.C. et al (2014). Reduced thalamic volumes in major depressive disorder. Psychiatry Research, 213(3): 179-185.