ArticleCommunications medicine2022
Maternal psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic and structural changes of the human fetal brain.
Article in Communications medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association of Mandatory COVID-19 Lockdown Exposure with Increased Maternal Prenatal Smoking and Reduced Fetal Head Growth: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Maternal and child health journal · 2026Article
- 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
- Brain metabolite changes in neonates of mothers with SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy: a case-control study.Pediatric radiology · 2026Article
- Prenatal maternal psychological distress is associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes in toddlers with congenital heart disease.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- The COVID generation: the neurodevelopmental consequences of in-utero COVID-19 exposure.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Article
- Prenatal antidepressant exposure is associated withFrontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Poverty and caregiver mental health are related to infant and toddler resting-state brain networks: insights from fNIRS.Neurophotonics · 2026Article
- BrainNeXt: novel lightweight CNN model for the automated detection of brain disorders using MRI images.Cognitive neurodynamics · 2025Article
- Advancing telemedicine and task-sharing to improve access to psychotherapy for perinatal populations.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Prenatal Distress and Infant Functional Brain Development.JAACAP open · 2025Article
- Protocol for a randomized controlled trial of the Mommy&Me study: A multi-modal approach to address social determinants of health and mental health among low-income Black perinatal populations.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2025Article
- Article
- Quantifying the Timing of Gyral and Sulcal Formation Relative to Growth in the Ferret Cerebral Cortex.Developmental neuroscience · 2025Article
- Advances in fetal and neonatal neuroimaging and everyday exposures.Pediatric research · 2024Review
- Maternal stress during pregnancy alters circulating small extracellular vesicles and enhances their targeting to the placenta and fetus.Biological research · 2024Article
- Viral infections in pregnancy and impact on offspring neurodevelopment: mechanisms and lessons learned.Pediatric research · 2024Review
- Brain structural and functional outcomes in the offspring of women experiencing psychological distress during pregnancy.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Review
- Prenatal Maternal Psychological Distress During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Newborn Brain Development.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Patient experiences and anxiety related to medical imaging: challenges and potential solutions.Journal of medical radiation sciences · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Background: Elevated maternal psychological distress during pregnancy is linked to adverse outcomes in offspring. The potential effects of intensified levels of maternal distress during the COVID-19 pandemic on the developing fetal brain are currently unknown. Methods: We prospectively enrolled 202 pregnant women: 65 without known COVID-19 exposures during the pandemic who underwent 92 fetal MRI scans, and 137 pre-pandemic controls who had 182 MRI scans. Multi-plane, multi-phase single shot fast spin echo T2-weighted images were acquired on a GE 1.5 T MRI Scanner. Volumes of six brain tissue types were calculated. Cortical folding measures, including brain surface area, local gyrification index, and sulcal depth were determined. At each MRI scan, maternal distress was assessed using validated stress, anxiety, and depression scales. Generalized estimating equations were utilized to compare maternal distress measures, brain volume and cortical folding differences between pandemic and pre-pandemic cohorts. Results: Stress and depression scores are significantly higher in the pandemic cohort, compared to the pre-pandemic cohort. Fetal white matter, hippocampal, and cerebellar volumes are decreased in the pandemic cohort. Cortical surface area and local gyrification index are also decreased in all four lobes, while sulcal depth is lower in the frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes in the pandemic cohort, indicating delayed brain gyrification. Conclusions: We report impaired fetal brain growth and delayed cerebral cortical gyrification in COVID-19 pandemic era pregnancies, in the setting of heightened maternal psychological distress. The potential long-term neurodevelopmental consequences of altered fetal brain development in COVID-era pregnancies merit further study.
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