Maternal childhood maltreatment: Associations to offspring brain volume and white matter connectivity
Authors
Claudia Lugo-Candelas, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA.
Le Chang, Department of Statistics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA.
Jordan D. Dworkin, Federation of American Scientists Washington, Washington, USA.
Natalie Aw, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA.
Andrea Fields, Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, USA.
Hannah Reed, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA.
Marisa Spann, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA.
Michelle A. Gilchrist, Advocate Aurora HealthFollow
Walter Hinds, Department of Neurology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Rachel Marsh, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA.
William P. Fifer, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA.
Myrna Weissman, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA.
Bernd Uwe Foerster, Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Marina Giorgi Manin, Department of Pediatrics, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Ivaldo Silva, Department of Gynecology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Bradley Peterson, Department of Psychiatry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Ana Carolina Coelho Milani, Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Jay Gingrich, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA.
Catherine Monk, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA.
Cristiane S. Duarte, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA.
Andrea Jackowski, Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Jonathan Posner, Department of Psychiatry, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Recommended Citation
Lugo-Candelas C, Chang L, Dworkin JD, et al. Maternal childhood maltreatment: associations to offspring brain volume and white matter connectivity. J Dev Orig Health Dis. 2023;14(5):591-601. doi:10.1017/S2040174423000247
Abstract
The deleterious effects of adversity are likely intergenerational, such that one generation's adverse experiences can affect the next. Epidemiological studies link maternal adversity to offspring depression and anxiety, possibly via transmission mechanisms that influence offspring fronto-limbic connectivity. However, studies have not thoroughly disassociated postnatal exposure effects nor considered the role of offspring sex. We utilized infant neuroimaging to test the hypothesis that maternal childhood maltreatment (CM) would be associated with increased fronto-limbic connectivity in infancy and tested brain-behavior associations in childhood. Ninety-two dyads participated (32 mothers with CM, 60 without; 52 infant females, 40 infant males). Women reported on their experiences of CM and non-sedated sleeping infants underwent MRIs at 2.44 ± 2.74 weeks. Brain volumes were estimated via structural MRI and white matter structural connectivity (fiber counts) via diffusion MRI with probabilistic tractography. A subset of parents (n = 36) reported on children's behaviors at age 5.17 ± 1.73 years. Males in the maltreatment group demonstrated greater intra-hemispheric fronto-limbic connectivity (b = 0.96, p= 0.008, [95%CI 0.25, 1.66]), no differences emerged for females. Fronto-limbic connectivity was related to somatic complaints in childhood only for males (r = 0.673, p = 0.006). Our findings suggest that CM could have intergenerational associations to offspring brain development, yet mechanistic studies are needed.
