ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2017
Prenatal maternal cortisol concentrations predict neurodevelopment in middle childhood.
Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 104 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neonatal Hair Cortisol and Birth Outcomes: An Empirical Study and Meta-Analysis.Psychosomatic medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Association between prenatal maternal anxiety and/or stress and offspring's cognitive functioning: A meta-analysis.Child development · 2023Pooled it
- Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings in Children after Antenatal Maternal Depression Treatment, a Longitudinal Study Built on a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Trial
- Associations between maternal sleep disorders and long-term neurodevelopmental disorders in children: evidence from a national cohort of 1.9 million births.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2026Article
- Associations among maternal prenatal depression, maternal autism traits, and child autism traits in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcome (ECHO) program.Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders · 2026Article
- Fetal Cortisol Exposure and Offspring Socioemotional Development.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Stress during the first 1,000 days of life in humans, when everything begins.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Review
- Poverty and caregiver mental health are related to infant and toddler resting-state brain networks: insights from fNIRS.Neurophotonics · 2026Article
- Timing sensitivity of prenatal cortisol exposure and neurocognitive development.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- Experiences of discrimination during pregnancy predict altered neonatal hair cortisol at birth.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- Placental nanoparticle-mediated IGF1 gene therapy corrects fetal growth restriction in a guinea pig model.Gene therapy · 2025Article
- Parkinson's Spectrum Mechanisms in Pregnancy: Exploring Hypothetical Scenarios for MSA in the Era of ART.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Transcriptomic Alteration in the Brain and Gut of Offspring Following Prenatal Exposure to Corticosterone.Experimental neurobiology · 2025Article
- Behavioral moderators ofFrontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Prenatal Social Determinants of Health: Narrative review of maternal environments and neonatal brain development.Pediatric research · 2024Review
- Association between prenatal maternal sleep quality, neonatal uncinate fasciculus white matter, and infant negative emotionality.EBioMedicine · 2024Article
- DHEA: a neglected biological signal that may affect fetal and child development.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2024Article
- Brain structural and functional outcomes in the offspring of women experiencing psychological distress during pregnancy.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Review
- Higher prenatal anxiety predicts lower neonatal hair cortisol.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- Maternal anxiety during pregnancy predicts infant attention to affective faces.Journal of affective disorders · 2024Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Glucocorticoids (cortisol in humans) are the end product of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis and are proposed as a key mechanism for programming fetal brain development. The present prospective longitudinal study evaluates the association between prenatal maternal cortisol concentrations and child neurodevelopment. Participants included a low risk sample of 91 mother-child pairs. Prenatal maternal plasma cortisol concentrations were measured at 19 and 31 gestational weeks. Brain development and cognitive functioning were assessed when children were 6-9 years of age. Structural magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired and cortical thickness was determined. Child cognitive functioning was evaluated using standardized measures (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children IV and Expressive Vocabulary Test, Second Edition). Higher maternal cortisol concentrations during the third trimester were associated with greater child cortical thickness primarily in frontal regions. No significant associations were observed between prenatal maternal cortisol concentrations and child cortical thinning. Elevated third trimester maternal cortisol additionally was associated with enhanced child cognitive performance. Findings in this normative sample of typically developing children suggest that elevated maternal cortisol during late gestation exert lasting benefits for brain development and cognitive functioning 6-9 years later. The benefits of fetal exposure to higher maternal cortisol during the third trimester for child neurodevelopment are consistent with the role cortisol plays in maturation of the human fetus. It is plausible that more extreme elevations in maternal cortisol concentrations late in gestation, as well as exposure to pharmacological levels of synthetic glucocorticoids, may have neurotoxic effects on the developing fetal brain.
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Registered trials
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