Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences in Child Population Samples: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Importance: Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) before the age of 18 years is a major contributor to the global burden of disease and disability.

Objective: To meta-analyze data from samples with children 18 years or younger to estimate the average prevalence of ACEs, identify characteristics and contexts associated with higher or lower ACE exposure, and explore methodological factors that might influence these prevalence estimates.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Studies that were published between January 1, 1998 and February 19, 2024, were sourced from MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINHAL, and Embase.

Distinct sex-dependent effects of maternal preconception nicotine and enrichment on the early development of rat offspring brain and behavior.

Developmental nicotine exposure is harmful to offspring. Whereas much is known about the consequences of prenatal nicotine exposure, relatively little is understood about how maternal preconception nicotine impacts the next generation. Positive experiences, such as environmental enrichment/complexity, have considerable potential to improve developmental outcomes and even treat and prevent drug addiction.

Maternal stress prior to conception impairs memory and decreases right dorsal hippocampal volume and basilar spine density in the prefrontal cortex of adult male offspring.

Chronic parental stress impacts offspring functioning throughout life. Chronic variable stress prior to conception impairs offspring development in terms of behavior, neuroanatomy, and neurobiology. Previously, our lab demonstrated that even a consistent stressor experienced by the sire or the dam shapes offspring development beginning in early life.

A Neural Network Reveals Motoric Effects of Maternal Preconception Exposure to Nicotine on Rat Pup Behavior: A New Approach for Movement Disorders Diagnosis.

Neurodevelopmental disorders can stem from pharmacological, genetic, or environmental causes and early diagnosis is often a key to successful treatment. To improve early detection of neurological motor impairments, we developed a deep neural network for data-driven analyses. The network was applied to study the effect of maternal nicotine exposure prior to conception on 10-day-old rat pup motor behavior in an open field task.

Maternal Preconception Stress Alters Prefrontal Cortex Development in Long-Evans Rat Pups without Changing Maternal Care.

Stress during development can shift the typical developmental trajectory. Maternal stress prior to conception has recently been shown to exert similar influences on the offspring. The present study questioned if a consistent maternal stressor prior to conception (elevated platform stress) would impact the pre-weaning development of offspring brain and behavior, and if maternal care was vulnerable to this experience.