Intergenerational and early life associations of the gut microbiome and stress-related symptomatology among Black American mothers and children.

Recent evidence suggests that maternal childhood adversity may have an intergenerational impact, with children of adversity-exposed mothers exhibiting elevated symptoms of psychopathology. At the same time, many children demonstrate resilience to these intergenerational effects. Among the variety of factors that likely contribute to resilience, the composition of the gut microbiome may play a role in buffering the negative impacts of trauma and stress.

When Anger Remains Unspoken: Anger and Accelerated Epigenetic Aging Among Stress-Exposed Black Americans.

Objective: Race-related lifetime stress exposure (LSE) including racial discrimination, trauma, and stressful life events have been shown to contribute to racial health disparities. However, little is known about associations between race-related stressors and premature biological aging that confer the risk of adverse health outcomes. Even less is known about the mechanisms through which race-related stressors may be associated with accelerated aging.

Genetic and morphological estimates of androgen exposure predict social deficits in multiple neurodevelopmental disorder cohorts.

Background: Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display a strong male bias. Androgen exposure is profoundly increased in typical male development, but it also varies within the sexes, and previous work has sought to connect morphological proxies of androgen exposure, including digit ratio and facial morphology, to neurodevelopmental outcomes. The results of these studies have been mixed, and the relationships between androgen exposure and behavior remain unclear.

Maternal Childhood Adversity Associates With Frontoamygdala Connectivity in Neonates.

Background: It is well established that exposure to adversity, especially during sensitive periods of development such as childhood, has both behavioral (e.g., increasing one's risk for psychiatric illnesses) and neurobiological consequences.

Maternal prenatal depression and epigenetic age deceleration: testing potentially confounding effects of prenatal stress and SSRI use.

Previous studies suggest epigenetic alterations may contribute to the association between maternal prenatal depression and adverse offspring outcomes. Developmental researchers have recently begun to examine these associations in relation to epigenetic age acceleration/deceleration, a biomarker of developmental risk that reflects the deviation between epigenetic age and chronological age. In the perinatal period, preliminary studies indicate that maternal prenatal depression may lead to epigenetic age deceleration in newborns, which may predict adverse developmental outcomes.

Community attitudes on genetic research of gender identity, sexual orientation, and mental health.

Sex is an important factor in mental health, and a non-binary view of how variation in sex and gender influence mental health represents a new research frontier that may yield new insights. The recent acceleration of research into sexual orientation, gender identity, and mental health has generally been conducted without sufficient understanding of the opinions of sexual and gender minorities (SGM) toward this research. We surveyed 768 individuals, with an enrichment of LGBTQ+ stakeholders, for their opinions regarding genetic research of SGM and mental health.

HPA-axis multilocus genetic profile score moderates the association between maternal prenatal perceived stress and offspring depression in early adulthood.

Maternal stress during pregnancy can cause alterations to the fetal hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, a phenomenon known as fetal programming that may have lasting effects on offspring outcomes, including depression. Evidence suggests that these effects may vary with respect to the offspring's genetic risk. Nonetheless, few studies have examined these effects into adulthood, when risk for depression onset is highest.