ArticleTranslational psychiatry2016
Alterations in amygdala-prefrontal circuits in infants exposed to prenatal maternal depression.
Article in Translational psychiatry, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 106 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
106 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Parental Deprivation- and Threat-Based Factors Associated with Youth Emotion-Based Neurocircuitry and Externalizing Behavior: A Systematic Review.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2024Pooled it
- Digitalized Cognitive Behavioral Interventions for Depressive Symptoms During Pregnancy: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Pooled it
- The Transdiagnostic Origins of Anxiety and Depression During the Pediatric Period: Linking NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Constructs to Ecological Systems.Development and psychopathology · 2021Pooled it
- Infant hippocampal and amygdala volume in an observational follow-up from a randomized clinical trial for maternal prenatal depression.Nature communications · 2026Trial
- The association between perinatal depressive symptoms and child neurodevelopment.American journal of obstetrics & gynecology MFM · 2024Trial
- An experimental test of the fetal programming hypothesis: Can we reduce child ontogenetic vulnerability to psychopathology by decreasing maternal depression?Development and psychopathology · 2018Trial
- Postnatal distress, neonatal cerebellar myelination and neurodevelopmental outcomes at 18 months.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Association of prenatal depression and anxiety with cortical development and behavioral outcomes in 8-year-old children.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Investigating the influence of maternal prenatal BMI and perinatal depressive symptoms on neonatal brain network dynamics.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Neonatal amygdala microstructure and structural connectivity are associated with autistic traits at 2 years of age.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Functional brain growth trajectories across the first decade of life from a single longitudinal cohort.Research square · 2026Article
- Perinatal hardship and infant neurodevelopment: insights from a global pandemic.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Article
- Prenatal Adversity and Neonatal Brain Connectivity Relate to Emerging Executive Function at Age 2 Years.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2026Article
- Timing of Prenatal Stress Exposure Predicts Infant Sympathetic Nervous System and Affective Responses.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Poverty and caregiver mental health are related to infant and toddler resting-state brain networks: insights from fNIRS.Neurophotonics · 2026Article
- Prenatal stress shapes discrete responses during early recovery from repeated adult stress.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2026Article
- Early-life neural correlates of behavioral inhibition and anxiety risk.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Attenuated cognitive control network connectivity as a mechanism in mother-daughter intergenerational transmission of depression: a preliminary study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Pre- and postnatal maternal depressive symptoms associated with local connectivity of the left amygdala in 5-year-olds.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025Article
- A hierarchical model of early brain functional network development.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2025Review
46 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Prenatal exposure to maternal depression is common and puts offspring at risk for developing a range of neuropsychiatric disorders. Despite its prevalence and adverse associations, neurobiological processes by which prenatal maternal depression (PMD) confers risk remain poorly understood. Maternal mood and fetal behavior were assessed between 34 and 37 gestational weeks. Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion MRI, we examined functional and structural connectivity within amygdala-prefrontal circuits in 64 infants (mean age=5.8±1.7 weeks) with (n=20) and without (n=44) in utero exposure to PMD. Resting fMRI and diffusion MRI both indicated atypical amygdala-prefrontal connectivity in PMD-exposed infants: Resting fMRI indicated increased inverse, or negative, functional connectivity between the amygdala and the dorsal prefrontal cortex (PFC), bilaterally, and diffusion MRI indicated decreased structural connectivity between the right amygdala and the right ventral PFC. Spectral dynamic causal modeling supported these findings suggesting altered amygdala-PFC effective (or directed) connectivity in PMD-exposed infants. Last, path analyses supported a mechanistic account relating PMD to a third-trimester fetal behavior: PMD alters amygdala-PFC connectivity, which in turn, is associated with an increase in fetal heart rate reactivity to in utero perturbation. These data suggest that the maturation and coordination of central and peripheral physiology are altered by prenatal exposure to maternal depression. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to directly associate infant MRI measures with a behavior-fetal heart rate response, and supports hypotheses that PMD-associated variations in the development of amygdala-PFC circuits are relevant for future neurobehavioral maturation.
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