Exposure to maternal pre- and postnatal psychological distress: Effects on brain structure in 5-year-old children

Maternal prenatal distress is an important contributor to child neurodevelopmental trajectories but relatively few studies have explored the effect of distress exposure longitudinally across the perinatal period. The aim of this study was to investigate associations between exposure to pre- and postnatal maternal distress and child brain development in 5-year-olds. Mother-child dyads (n=173) were recruited from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort study. Maternal distress was quantified with composite scores of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the anxiety subscale of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL) at six time points: prenatally at 14, 24, and 34 gestational weeks (GW), and postnatally at 3, 6 and 24 months. T1-weighted structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed using Siemens Magnetom Skyra 3T scanner and analyzed via voxel-based morphometry (VBM), controlling for potential confounders. Higher prenatal distress at 14 GW was positively associated with regional gray matter (GM) densities in the right superior parietal lobe and precuneus. In contrast, postnatal distress at 3 months were negatively associated with GM densities in motor regions (the left supplementary motor cortex and cerebellum), the left anterior insula, right superior frontal regions, and supramarginal gyrus. Furthermore, postnatal distress at 6 months was positively associated with GM densities in the right calcarine and lingual gyri, while distress at 2 years was negatively associated with GM densities in the left supramarginal and right superior frontal gyri. In conclusion, this study found differences between the effects of pre- and postnatal exposures and highlights the need for longitudinal modeling of the distress exposure.