ArticleThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2020
Amygdala-Prefrontal Structural Connectivity Mediates the Relationship between Prenatal Depression and Behavior in Preschool Boys.
Article in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prenatal stress and externalizing behaviors in childhood and adolescence: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychological bulletin · 2024Pooled it
- Brain-based Sex Differences in Depression: A Systematic Review of Neuroimaging Studies.Brain imaging and behavior · 2023Pooled it
- Digitalized Cognitive Behavioral Interventions for Depressive Symptoms During Pregnancy: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Pooled it
- Maternal Depression, Childhood Resting-State Brain Connectivity, and Adolescent Depression During the COVID-19 Outbreak.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Article
- The Earliest Impressions: A Systematic Review of Early-Life Exposures on Brain Structure and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Neonatal amygdala microstructure and structural connectivity are associated with autistic traits at 2 years of age.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- The promise of infant MRI in psychiatry: toward a framework for neural network measures in early emotional and behavioral risk identification and new intervention targets.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Perinatal maternal mental health and offspring internalizing and externalizing difficulties from early childhood through adolescence: Rhea mother-child cohort in Crete, Greece.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- The association between prenatal maternal anxiety, infant brain volumes, and temperament during the COVID-19 pandemic.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Brain structural and functional outcomes in the offspring of women experiencing psychological distress during pregnancy.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Review
- The effects of experience of discrimination and acculturation during pregnancy on the developing offspring brain.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Maternal anxiety during pregnancy is associated with weaker prefrontal functional connectivity in adult offspring.Brain imaging and behavior · 2023Article
- Prenatal mental health data and birth outcomes in the pregnancy during the COVID-19 Pandemic dataset.Data in brief · 2023Article
- Prenatal depressive symptoms and childhood development of brain limbic and default mode network structure.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- Toward reframing brain-social dynamics: current assumptions and future challenges.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Review
- Prenatal Maternal Distress During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Associations With Infant Brain Connectivity.Biological psychiatry · 2022Article
- Hypoconnectivity between anterior insula and amygdala associates with future vulnerabilities in social development in a neurodiverse sample of neonates.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Maternal depressive symptoms, neonatal white matter, and toddler social-emotional development.Translational psychiatry · 2022Article
- Astrocyte reactivation in medial prefrontal cortex contributes to obesity-promoted depressive-like behaviors.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Prenatal depression is common, underrecognized, and undertreated. It has negative consequences on child behavior and brain development, yet the relationships among prenatal depression, child behavior, and children's brain structure remain unclear. The aim of this study was to determine whether altered brain connectivity mediates relationships between prenatal maternal depressive symptoms and child behavior. This study included 54 human mother-child pairs. Mothers completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy and 3 months postpartum. Their children had diffusion MRI at age 4.1 ± 0.8 years, and children's behavior was assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist within 6 months of their MRI scan. Structural brain connectivity of the amygdala, fornix, uncinate fasciculus, and cingulum was assessed using fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity and analyzed with maternal prenatal depressive symptoms as well as child behavior. Third trimester maternal Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale scores were positively associated with mean diffusivity in the amygdala-frontal tract and the cingulum, controlling for postpartum depression. Externalizing behavior had a sex interaction in the amygdala-frontal pathway; weaker connectivity (lower fractional anisotropy, higher mean diffusivity) was associated with worse behavior in boys. Amygdala-frontal connectivity mediated the relationship between third trimester depressive symptoms and child externalizing behavior in males. These findings suggest that altered brain structure is a mechanism via which prenatal depressive symptoms can impact child behavior, highlighting the importance of both recognition and intervention in prenatal depression.
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