ArticleBrain, behavior, and immunity2024
Maternal prenatal immune activation associated with brain tissue microstructure and metabolite concentrations in newborn infants.
Article in Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Associations between chronic placental inflammation, fetal brain development and later autism traits.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- The Earliest Impressions: A Systematic Review of Early-Life Exposures on Brain Structure and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The role of persistent inflammation in failed recovery after perinatal brain injury: is resolution the cure?Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Review
- Sex-specific vulnerabilities in early human neurodevelopment following SARS-CoV-2-induced maternal immune activation.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Decreased hippocampal neurite density in late-middle-aged adults following prenatal exposure to higher levels of maternal inflammation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Social Determinants of Health and Early Brain Development.Pediatric clinics of North America · 2025Review
- Decreased hippocampal neurite density in late middle-aged adults following prenatal exposure to higher levels of maternal inflammation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Maternal Immune Activation and Child Brain Development: A Longitudinal Population-Based Multimodal Neuroimaging Study.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025Article
- Maternal and child immune profiles are associated with neurometabolite measures of early-life neuroinflammation in children who are HIV-exposed and uninfected: a South African birth cohort.Wellcome open research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
- Update of
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Few human studies have assessed the association of prenatal maternal immune activation (MIA) with measures of brain development and psychiatric risk in newborn offspring. Our goal was to identify the effects of MIA during the 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy on newborn measures of brain metabolite concentrations, tissue microstructure, and motor development. This was a prospective longitudinal cohort study conducted with nulliparous pregnant women who were aged 14 to 19 years and recruited in their 2nd trimester, as well as their children who were followed through 14 months of age. MIA was indexed by maternal interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in both trimesters of pregnancy. Primary outcomes included: (1) newborn brain metabolite concentrations as ratios to creatine (N-acetylaspartate (NAA)/creatine (Cr) and choline (Cho)/Cr) measured using Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; (2) newborn fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity, measured using Diffusion Tensor Imaging; and (3) indices of motor development, assessed prenatally and postnatally at ages 4- and 14-months. Maternal IL-6 and CRP levels associated significantly with both metabolites in the putamen, thalamus, insula, and the internal capsule. Maternal IL-6 associated significantly with fractional anisotropy in the putamen, caudate, thalamus, insula, and precuneus, and with mean diffusivity in the inferior parietal and middle temporal gyrus. CRP associated significantly with fractional anisotropy in the thalamus, insula, and putamen. Significant associations were found in common regions across imaging modalities, though the direction of associations differed by immune marker. In addition, both maternal IL-6 and CRP (in both trimesters) prenatally associated significantly with offspring motor development at 4- and 14-months of age. The left thalamus mediated effects of IL-6 on postnatal motor development. These findings demonstrate that levels of MIA in mid- to late pregnancy in a generally healthy sample associate with tissue characteristics in newborn brain regions that primarily support motor integration and coordination, as well as behavioral regulation. Those brain effects may contribute to differences in motor development.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.