Early life influences on cognition, behavior, and emotion in humans: from birth to age 20

Prenatal anxiety during the pandemic context is related to neurodevelopment of 6-month-old babies

Prenatal anxiety and depression in pandemic context could introduce changes in the fetal developmental trajectories that, ultimately, could alter the adaptive behaviors of the offspring, potentially affecting, for example, general neurodevelopment. The sample consisted of 105 mother-child dyads, recruited between March and May 2020. The dyads were evaluated longitudinally, prenatally and postnatally (6 months). The Pandemic Impact Questionnaire, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Beck-II Depression Inventory were used to assess indicators of maternal anxiety and depression, respectively. Regarding the babies, their mothers responded to Age and Stages: 3, which assesses different dimensions of early neurodevelopment, in addition to a closed questionnaire to identify sociodemographic and maternal and child health variables. A series of mediation models were tested to examine the association between prenatal psychopathology/negative experiences of the pandemic and neurodevelopment. The results indicated that the negative experiences of the pandemic were indirectly associated with the socio-individual and fine motor neurodevelopment of the offspring, through maternal anxiety symptoms, during the third trimester, which functioned as a mediator.  Conclusions: This study provides evidence on the mediating effects of maternal anxiety on infant neurodevelopment in contexts of early adversity. It is important to point out the need to implement public health policies that allow a timely evaluation of neurodevelopmental variables during early childhood, which can implement early interventions to reduce the risks associated with these deficits. What is Known: • Effects of maternal mental health have been reported, effects on child neurodevelopment, in motor, cognitive, linguistic and socio-emotional dimensions. • Contexts of early adversity have been associated with maternal mental health and offspring development. What is New: • The context of pandemic adversity caused by COVID-19 is associated with motor and socio-individual neurodevelopment, mediated by maternal prenatal anxiety.

Maternal anxiety, exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic and socioemotional development of offspring

The COVID-19 pandemic context may predispose mothers to increased maternal psychopathology, which may be associated with offspring socioemotional development. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationships between prenatal anxiety and depression and exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic with offspring socioemotional development, controlling for postnatal anxiety and depression. A total of 105 mother-child dyads were assessed in pre- and postnatal periods. Questionnaires were used to assess the impact of the pandemic, indicators of psychopathology, and the socioemotional development of the offspring. Results suggest that negative pandemic experiences are indirectly associated with offspring socioemotional development via prenatal maternal anxiety symptomatology and after controlling for postnatal anxiety and depression. These indicators predispose to emotional deficits and increase the risks of psychopathological and neurodevelopmental disorders. It is important to adopt health policies that provide timely assessment of development in early childhood to reduce the risks associated with these deficits.

The Pandemial babies: effects of maternal stress on temperament of babies gestated and born during the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic may configure an adverse prenatal context for early development. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of pandemic-related negative experiences, prenatal anxiety and depression on the temperament of six-month-old babies. The sample consisted of 105 mother-child dyads. A longitudinal evaluation was carried out using pre- and postnatal online surveys. Mothers completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory - II, the Pandemic Impact Questionnaire and the Infant Behavior Questionnaire Revised. Serial mediation models were tested, in which the pandemic-related negative experiences constituted the independent variable, the prenatal anxiety and depression were the mediators, and the children's temperament dimensions were the dependent variables. Pandemic-related negative experiences were indirectly associated with the offspring's negative affect and surgency through anxious symptomatology, which acted as a mediating variable. This was the first study to identify the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on temperament. Such an adverse context implies risks for child development. Public health policies aiming to evaluate socioemotional variables during early childhood become necessary to allow on-time interventions for lessening these risks.

Bridging the Gap between the Pressing Need for Family Skills Programmes in Humanitarian Settings and Implementation

A supportive environment with nurturing caregivers is essential for the healthy development of children. For children who have been exposed to extreme stress, such as humanitarian contexts, the need for strong, healthy, nurturing caregiver relationships may assume even greater importance. Much research has been building to position family skills interventions as a key tool in encouraging safe and supporting relationships between caregivers and children, thus preventing many problem behaviours and poor mental health. While there is substantial evidence of the effectiveness of family skills interventions in high-income and stable contexts, evidence of interventions that have been tested in humanitarian and challenging settings, such as contexts of refugee and displacement, are far fewer. Despite the role that family skills interventions can play in protecting children from current and future challenges, there is a significant lack of such interventions being utilised in humanitarian settings. We put forward seven likely reasons for this lack of uptake. Furthermore, the Strong Families programme, a UNODC family skills intervention, is presented as an example of an intervention that aims to bridge this gap of interventions that meet the need for humanitarian and contexts of extreme stress. More research is needed to unpack the content, delivery mechanisms and reach of family skills programmes to further aid programme developers in investing in efforts that might provide significant sustained impact for families in humanitarian contexts.

Stress transgenerationally programs metabolic pathways linked to altered mental health

Stress is among the primary causes of mental health disorders, which are the most common reason for disability worldwide. The ubiquity of these disorders, and the costs associated with them, lends a sense of urgency to the efforts to improve prediction and prevention. Down-stream metabolic changes are highly feasible and accessible indicators of pathophysiological processes underlying mental health disorders. Here, we show that remote and cumulative ancestral stress programs central metabolic pathways linked to mental health disorders. The studies used a rat model consisting of a multigenerational stress lineage (the great-great-grandmother and each subsequent generation experienced stress during pregnancy) and a transgenerational stress lineage (only the great-great-grandmother was stressed during pregnancy). Urine samples were collected from adult male F4 offspring and analyzed using 1H NMR spectroscopy. The results of variable importance analysis based on random variable combination were used for unsupervised multivariate principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering analysis, as well as metabolite set enrichment analysis (MSEA) and pathway analysis. We identified distinct metabolic profiles associated with the multigenerational and transgenerational stress phenotype, with consistent upregulation of hippurate and downregulation of tyrosine, threonine, and histamine. MSEA and pathway analysis showed that these metabolites are involved in catecholamine biosynthesis, immune responses, and microbial host interactions. The identification of metabolic signatures linked to ancestral programming assists in the discovery of gene targets for future studies of epigenetic regulation in pathogenic processes. Ultimately, this research can lead to biomarker discovery for better prediction and prevention of mental health disorders.

Long-term consequences of prenatal stress and neurotoxicants exposure on neurodevelopment

There is a large consensus that the prenatal environment determines the susceptibility to pathological conditions later in life. The hypothesis most widely accepted is that exposure to insults inducing adverse conditions in-utero may have negative effects on the development of target organs, disrupting homeostasis and increasing the risk of diseases at adulthood. Several models have been proposed to investigate the fetal origins of adult diseases, but although these approaches hold true for almost all diseases, particular attention has been focused on disorders related to the central nervous system, since the brain is particularly sensitive to alterations of the microenvironment during early development. Neurobiological disorders can be broadly divided into developmental, neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. Even though most of these diseases share genetic risk factors, the onset of the disorders cannot be explained solely by inheritance. Therefore, current understanding presumes that the interactions of environmental input, may lead to different disorders. Among the insults that can play a direct or indirect role in the development of neurobiological disorders are stress, infections, drug abuse, and environmental contaminants. Our laboratories have been involved in the study of the neurobiological impact of gestational stress on the offspring (Dr. Antonelli's lab) and on the effect of gestational exposure to toxicants, mainly methyl mercury (MeHg) and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) (Dr. Ceccatelli's lab). In this focused review, we will review the specialized literature but we will concentrate mostly on our own work on the long term neurodevelopmental consequences of gestational exposure to stress and neurotoxicants.

Relation between maternal antenatal anxiety and infants' weight depends on infants' sex: A longitudinal study from late gestation to 1-month post birth

OBJECTIVE

To test for gender-differences in the relation between mothers' antenatal anxiety and infants' body weight during gestation, at birth, and at 1-month of age.

METHODS

Two hundred and twelve randomly-recruited women were divided into two groups: Controls (n=105) and Anxious Group (n=107) based on a standard cut-off of the Beck Anxiety Inventory. Outcome measures were Fetal Weight derived from biometrics obtained from an ultrasound scan in the 3rd trimester and infants' weight at birth and at 1-month of age, both obtained from medical records.

RESULTS

Multivariate analyses showed main effects of Gender on infants' birth weight (P=.001) and on infants' weight at 1-month of age (P=.004), but no main effects of Anxiety Group at any time-point. Gender x Anxiety Group interactions at all three time points (Fetal weight: P=.05; Birth weight: P=.03; 1-month of age: P=.10) reflected gender differences (males>females) among infants in the anxious group, but not among controls. Distinct trends regarding same sex comparisons across groups (Control vs. Anxiety) were in line with predictions (male controls<male anxious; female controls>females anxious). Controlling for Postpartum Anxiety and Antenatal and Postpartum Depression in the models did not affect primary results.

CONCLUSION

Gender differences in fetal and birth weight were more substantial among infants of anxious mothers than among controls due to the seemingly accelerated growth of "anxious" males and the diminution of weight among "anxious" females.

Ancestral experience as a game changer in stress vulnerability and disease outcomes

Stress is one of the most powerful experiences to influence health and disease. Through epigenetic mechanisms, stress may generate a footprint that propagates to subsequent generations. Programming by prenatal stress or adverse experience in parents, grandparents, or earlier generations may thus be a critical determinant of lifetime health trajectories. Changes in regulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) by stress may enhance the vulnerability to certain pathogenic factors. This review explores the hypothesis that miRNAs represent stress-responsive elements in epigenetic regulation that are potentially heritable. Recent findings suggest that miRNAs are key players linking adverse early environments or ancestral stress with disease risk, thus they represent useful predictive disease biomarkers. Since miRNA signatures of disease are potentially heritable, big data management platforms will be vital to harness multi-generational information and capture succinct yet potent biomarkers capable of directing preventative treatments. This feature would offer a unique window of opportunity to advance personalized medicine.