Maternal perceived stress and green spaces during pregnancy are associated with adult offspring gene (NR3C1 and IGF2/H19) methylation patterns in adulthood: A pilot study.

Background: Changes in NR3C1 and IGF2/H19 methylation patterns have been associated with behavioural and psychiatric outcomes. Maternal mental state has been associated with offspring NR3C1 promotor and IGF2/H19 imprinting control region (ICR) methylation patterns. However, there is a lack of prospective studies with long-term follow-up.

Current perspectives on perinatal mental health and neurobehavioral development: focus on regulation, coregulation and self-regulation.

Purpose Of Review: Perinatal mental health research provides an important perspective on neurobehavioral development. Here, we aim to review the association of maternal perinatal health with offspring neurodevelopment, providing an update on (self-)regulation problems, hypothesized mechanistic pathways, progress and challenges, and implications for mental health.

Recent Findings: (1) Meta-analyses confirm that maternal perinatal mental distress is associated with (self-)regulation problems which constitute cognitive, behavioral, and affective social-emotional problems, while exposure to positive parental mental health has a positive impact.

Maternal anxiety during pregnancy is associated with weaker prefrontal functional connectivity in adult offspring.

Background: The connectome, constituting a unique fingerprint of a person's brain, may be influenced by its prenatal environment, potentially affecting later-life resilience and mental health.

Methods: We conducted a prospective resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging study in 28-year-old offspring (N = 49) of mothers whose anxiety was monitored during pregnancy. Two offspring anxiety subgroups were defined: "High anxiety" (n = 13) group versus "low-to-medium anxiety" (n = 36) group, based on maternal self-reported state anxiety at 12-22 weeks of gestation.

Epigenetic Modifications Associated with Maternal Anxiety during Pregnancy and Children's Behavioral Measures.

Epigenetic changes are associated with altered behavior and neuropsychiatric disorders and they modify the trajectory of aging. Maternal anxiety during pregnancy is a common environmental challenge for the fetus, causing changes in DNA methylation. Here, we determined the mediating role of DNA methylation and the moderating role of offspring sex on the association between maternal anxiety and children's behavioral measures.

Helping Families of Infants With Persistent Crying and Sleep Problems in a Day-Clinic.

Excessive crying and sleep problems affect up to 30% of infants and often coexist. Although usually benign and self-limiting, persistent crying, and sleep problems exceeding 6 months of age need attention as they may impair the mental health of the infant and its family. The source and the impact of these persistent regulatory problems is often not restricted to the infant, but extends to the parents and the parent-infant relationship.

The late positive potential (LPP): A neural marker of internalizing problems in early childhood.

Background: One potentially relevant neurophysiological marker of internalizing problems (anxiety/depressive symptoms) is the late positive potential (LPP), as it is related to processing of emotional stimuli. For the first time, to our knowledge, we investigated the value of the LPP as a neurophysiological marker for internalizing problems and specific anxiety and depressive symptoms, at preschool age.

Method: At age 4 years, children (N = 84) passively viewed a series of neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant pictures selected from the International Affective Pictures System.

Effects of maternal stress and nutrient restriction during gestation on offspring neuroanatomy in humans.

Cognitive and mental health are major determinants of quality of life, allowing integration into society at all ages. Human epidemiological and animal studies indicate that in addition to genetic factors and lifestyle, prenatal environmental influences may program neuropsychiatric disorders in later life. While several human studies have examined the effects of prenatal stress and nutrient restriction on brain function and mental health in later life, potentially mediating effects of prenatal stress and nutrient restriction on offspring neuroanatomy in humans have been studied only in recent years.

Antenatal maternal anxiety modulates the BOLD response in 20-year-old men during endogenous cognitive control.

Evidence is building for an association between the level of anxiety experienced by a mother during pregnancy and offspring cognition and structural and functional brain correlates. The current study uses fMRI to examine the association between prenatal exposure to maternal anxiety and brain activity associated with endogenous versus exogenous cognitive control in 20-year-old males. Endogenous cognitive control refers to the ability to generate control over decisions, strategies, conflicting information and so on, from within oneself without external signals, while exogenous control is triggered by external signals.

Comment on 'Prenatal maternal anxiety and children's brain structure and function: A systematic review of neuroimaging studies' (Adamson et al., J Affect Disord 2018, 241, 117-126).

In the review article by Adamson, Letourneau and Lebel (J Affect Disord 2018, 241, 117-126) the article of Mennes, Van den Bergh, Lagae & Stiers (Clin Neurophysiolol 2009, 120, 116-1122) was rated as "weak, due to lack of information provided regarding the sample population of mothers". However, Mennes et al. (2009) had referred to previous articles describing data and results of earlier waves.

Prenatal stress and the developing brain: Risks for neurodevelopmental disorders.

The prenatal period is increasingly considered as a crucial target for the primary prevention of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. Understanding their pathophysiological mechanisms remains a great challenge. Our review reveals new insights from prenatal brain development research, involving (epi)genetic research, neuroscience, recent imaging techniques, physical modeling, and computational simulation studies.

Associations between maternal psychological distress and salivary cortisol during pregnancy: A mixed-models approach.

Background: Maternal psychological distress during pregnancy is related to adverse child behavioral and emotional outcomes later in life, such as ADHD and anxiety/depression. The underlying mechanisms for this, however, are still largely unknown. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis, with its most important effector hormone cortisol, has been proposed as a mechanism, but results have been inconsistent.

Exogenously triggered response inhibition in developmental stuttering.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to examine relations between children's exogenously triggered response inhibition and stuttering.

Method: Participants were 18 children who stutter (CWS; mean age = 9;01 years) and 18 children who not stutter (CWNS; mean age = 9;01 years). Participants were matched on age (±3 months) and gender.

Children prenatally exposed to maternal anxiety devote more attentional resources to neutral pictures.

Maternal anxiety during pregnancy can negatively affect fetal neurodevelopment, predisposing the offspring to a higher risk of behavioral and emotional problems later in life. The current study investigates the association between maternal anxiety during pregnancy and child affective picture processing using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Mothers reported anxiety during the second trimester using the anxiety subscale of the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90).

Prenatal developmental origins of behavior and mental health: The influence of maternal stress in pregnancy.

Accumulating research shows that prenatal exposure to maternal stress increases the risk for behavioral and mental health problems later in life. This review systematically analyzes the available human studies to identify harmful stressors, vulnerable periods during pregnancy, specificities in the outcome and biological correlates of the relation between maternal stress and offspring outcome. Effects of maternal stress on offspring neurodevelopment, cognitive development, negative affectivity, difficult temperament and psychiatric disorders are shown in numerous epidemiological and case-control studies.

Potential benefits of mindfulness during pregnancy on maternal autonomic nervous system function and infant development.

Mindfulness is known to decrease psychological distress. Possible benefits in pregnancy have rarely been explored. Our aim was to examine the prospective association of mindfulness with autonomic nervous system function during pregnancy and with later infant social-emotional development.

Psychological distress and cognitive coping in pregnant women diagnosed with cancer and their partners.

Objective: A cancer diagnosis during pregnancy may be considered as an emotional challenge for pregnant women and their partners. We aimed to identify women and partners at risk for high levels of distress based on their coping profile.

Methods: Sixty-one pregnant women diagnosed with cancer and their partners filled out the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) and the newly constructed Cancer and Pregnancy Questionnaire (CPQ).

Differences between human auditory event-related potentials (AERPs) measured at 2 and 4 months after birth.

Infant auditory event-related potentials (AERPs) show a series of marked changes during the first year of life. These AERP changes indicate important advances in early development. The current study examined AERP differences between 2- and 4-month-old infants.

Age-related microstructural differences quantified using myelin water imaging and advanced diffusion MRI.

Age-related microstructural differences have been detected using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Although DTI is sensitive to the effects of aging, it is not specific to any underlying biological mechanism, including demyelination. Combining multiexponential T2 relaxation (MET2) and multishell diffusion MRI (dMRI) techniques may elucidate such processes.

Early life influences on cognition, behavior, and emotion in humans: from birth to age 20.

The long-lasting effects of fetal exposure to early life influences (ELI) such as maternal anxiety, stress, and micronutrient deficiencies as well as mediating and moderating factors are quite well established in animal studies, but remain unclear in humans. Here, we report about effects on cognition, behavior, and emotion in offspring aged 5-20 years old in two prospective longitudinal birth cohorts.

Atypical central auditory speech-sound discrimination in children who stutter as indexed by the mismatch negativity.

Purpose: Recent theoretical conceptualizations suggest that disfluencies in stuttering may arise from several factors, one of them being atypical auditory processing. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate whether speech sound encoding and central auditory discrimination, are affected in children who stutter (CWS).

Methods: Participants were 10 CWS, and 12 typically developing children with fluent speech (TDC).

Characterizing the microstructural basis of "unidentified bright objects" in neurofibromatosis type 1: A combined in vivo multicomponent T2 relaxation and multi-shell diffusion MRI analysis.

Introduction: The histopathological basis of "unidentified bright objects" (UBOs) (hyperintense regions seen on T2-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) brain scans in neurofibromatosis-1 (NF1)) remains unclear. New in vivo MRI-based techniques (multi-exponential T2 relaxation (MET2) and diffusion MR imaging (dMRI)) provide measures relating to microstructural change. We combined these methods and present previously unreported data on in vivo UBO microstructure in NF1.

Maternal mindfulness and anxiety during pregnancy affect infants' neural responses to sounds.

Maternal anxiety during pregnancy has been consistently shown to negatively affect offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes. However, little is known about the impact of positive maternal traits/states during pregnancy on the offspring. The present study was aimed at investigating the effects of the mother's mindfulness and anxiety during pregnancy on the infant's neurocognitive functioning at 9 months of age.

Maternal long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid status during early pregnancy and children's risk of problem behavior at age 5-6 years.

Objective: To prospectively investigate the association between maternal long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCPUFA) status and ratio during pregnancy and children's risk of problem behavior at 5 years of age.

Study Design: Maternal LCPUFA status in plasma phospholipids during pregnancy (M = 13.3, SD = 3 weeks) was available for 4336 women.