Poor nutrition during pregnancy is a worldwide public health problem. Maternal nutrient reduction (MNR) is associated with maternal and fetal stress and a sex-dependent decrease in nonhuman primate (NHP) cognitive performance. Early life stress potentiates epileptogenesis in a sex-specific manner, and temporal lobe (TL) epilepsy is associated with neurocognitive disorders. The endogenous cannabinoid system (ECS) demonstrates remarkable developmental changes and plays a key role in aging-related diseases (e.g., dementia). Baboons have been studied as a natural model of epilepsy and express all ECS system components. We therefore evaluated baboon fetal temporal cortex ECS ontogenic and MNR-dependent changes. At 120 days gestational age (dGA) (term 185 days), maternal, fetal, and placental morphometry were similar between control and MNR pregnancies. MNR maternal weight gain was decreased compared with controls at 165 dGA independent of fetal sex. In male fetuses, expression of ECS synthesizing and degrading enzymes was gestational age-dependent, with the exception of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH). MNR had a sex-specific effect on the protein expression of CB1R during development: CB1R protein expression was decreased in fetal temporal cortex of male fetuses at 120 and 140 dGA. Our data reveal that the MNR has sex-specific effects on temporal cortical expression of the ECS in baboon offspring and shows vulnerability of ECS in male fetuses during gestation.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.14814/phy2.14024 | DOI Listing |
Autism Res
December 2024
Psychiatry and Addictology Department, CIUSSS-NIM Research Center, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Child-directed speech (CDS), which amplifies acoustic and social features of speech during interactions with young children, promotes typical phonetic and language development. In autism, both behavioral and brain data indicate reduced sensitivity to human speech, which predicts absent, decreased, or atypical benefits of exaggerated speech signals such as CDS. This study investigates the impact of exaggerated fundamental frequency (F0) and voice-onset time on the neural processing of speech sounds in 22 Chinese-speaking autistic children aged 2-7 years old with a history of speech delays, compared with 25 typically developing (TD) peers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPathophysiology
December 2024
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Astana Medical University, Astana 010000, Kazakhstan.
Unlabelled: Histomorphometric measurements of the wall thickness and internal diameter of the macrovessels of the chorionic villi of placentas from pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia or fetal growth restriction in comparison with normotensive pregnancy.
Methods: The research included placentas from singleton pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia and/or fetal growth restriction, women delivered in medical institutions in Karaganda city (Kazakhstan). Placentas were divided into three groups: PE ( = 59), isolated FGR ( = 24), and PE with FGR ( = 41).
Alcohol Clin Exp Res (Hoboken)
December 2024
Department of Psychology, Center for Behavioral Teratology, San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA.
Background: Fine motor skill deficits have been reported for children with histories of prenatal alcohol exposure, but little is known whether impaired motor skill extends to the regulation of precision grip control.
Methods: Children with (n = 15) and without (n = 17) histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure used their dominant hand to grasp, lift, and hold in space a small-instrumented object with a mass of 19 g. Object mass was also experimentally increased by separately adding two aluminum cubes with mass of 200 and 400 g.
J Neurosci
December 2024
Inserm UMR1105, Groupe de Recherches sur l'Analyse Multimodale de la Fonction Cérébrale, CURS, Avenue Laennec, 80036 Amiens Cedex, France
Rhythm perception and synchronization to periodicity hold fundamental neurodevelopmental importance for language acquisition, musical behavior, and social communication. Rhythm is omnipresent in the fetal auditory world and newborns demonstrate sensitivity to auditory rhythmic cues. During the last trimester of gestation, the brain begins to respond to auditory stimulation and to code the auditory environment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCureus
November 2024
Third Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Attiko Hospital, Athens, GRC.
Introduction: The seasonality of human births has been studied globally for over two centuries, revealing diverse patterns across populations shaped by intricate interactions involving both biological and socio-cultural factors. This study offers a thorough examination of national birth data in Greece spanning from 1956 to 2022, aiming to elucidate long-term trends and changes in seasonal birth patterns.
Materials And Methods: Data on live births in Greece were categorized by month based on national registries, and the analysis of birth seasonality was conducted annually.
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