Associations between mother’s depressive symptoms during pregnancy and newborn’s brain functional connectivity

Authors: NA, XIAOXU - University Arkansas For Medical Sciences (UAMS); GLASIER, CHARLES - University Arkansas For Medical Sciences (UAMS); ANDRES, ALINE - University Arkansas For Medical Sciences (UAMS); BELLANDO, JAYNE - University Arkansas For Medical Sciences (UAMS); CHEN, HAITAO - Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; GAO, WEI - Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; LIVINGSTON, LUKE - University Arkansas For Medical Sciences (UAMS); BADGER, THOMAS - University Arkansas For Medical Sciences (UAMS); OU, XAIWEI - University Arkansas For Medical Sciences (UAMS)

Submitted to: Cerebral Cortex
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/3/2023
Publication Date: 7/15/2023
Citation: Na, X., Glasier, C.M., Andres, A., Bellando, J., Chen, H., Gao, W., Livingston, L.W., Badger, T., Ou, X. 2023. Associations between mother’s depressive symptoms during pregnancy and newborn’s brain functional connectivity. Cerebral Cortex. 33(14):8980-8989. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhad176.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhad176

Interpretive Summary: Significant negative correlations were identified between neonatal brain resting-state functional connectivity in the frontal lobe and between frontal/temporal lobe and occipital lobe and mother’s depression symptom scores in the third trimester;Our study provides novel evidence that maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy may potentially have an impact on offspring brain development, even in the absence of clinical depression.

Technical Abstract: Background: Depression during pregnancy is common and the prevalence further increased during the COVID pandemic. Recent findings have shown potential impact of antenatal major depression on children’s neurodevelopment and behavior, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Nor is it clear whether mild depressive symptoms among pregnant women would impact the developing brain. Methods: In this prospective study, 40 healthy pregnant women had their depressive symptoms evaluated by the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) at ~12, ~24, and ~36 weeks of pregnancy, and their healthy full-term newborns underwent a brain MRI without sedation including resting-state fMRI for evaluation of functional connectivity (FC) development. The FCs between 90 cortical regions were calculated and their relationships with maternal BDI-II scores were evaluated by Spearman’s rank partial correlation tests using appropriate multiple comparison correction with newborn’s gender and gestational age at birth controlled. Results: Significant negative correlations (P = 0.05, Bonferroni corrected) were identified between neonatal brain FC and mother’s BDI-II scores in the third trimester, but not in the first or the second trimester. The pair-wise FCs involved were: left precentral gyrus and right middle frontal gyrus (R = -0.58, P = 0.01), left precentral gyrus and right anterior cingulum gyrus (R = -0.55, P = 0.03), right inferior orbital frontal gyrus and right inferior occipital gyrus (R = -0.61, P = 0.005), right inferior occipital gyrus and right middle temporal pole gyrus (R = -0.60, P = 0.005), and right superior orbital frontal gyrus and right inferior occipital gyrus (R = -0.58, P = 0.01). Conclusion: Higher depressive symptoms during the third trimester of pregnancy were associated with lower neonatal brain functional connectivity in the frontal lobe and between frontal/temporal lobe and occipital lobe, indicating a potential impact of maternal depressive symptoms on offspring brain development, even in the absence of clinical depression.