The Effects of Prenatal Stress & Poor Nutrition on Brain and Cognition

描述（由申请人提供）：儿童的神经认知发展会对他们的未来产生深远的影响，极大地影响他们的职业功能和心理社会适应。虽然越来越多的人认识到，早期环境经验（即养育方式）的规范性变化在形成认知发展方面起着重要作用，但有证据表明，环境对认知发展的影响始于子宫。怀孕期间的两种常见经历——心理社会压力和微量营养素摄入不足——尤其是铁和锌——会影响结果。根据贝利量表（Bayley Scales），产前焦虑预示着婴儿期智力和运动发育的延迟，根据大脑成像，学龄期儿童颞叶中部灰质的减少。动物模型表明，产前皮质类固醇的使用与神经认知障碍（即学习困难）和大脑结构变化（如海马体积减少）有关。缺锌母亲所生的婴儿有记忆障碍的迹象。在这两种产前暴露中，动物研究与人类研究的区别在于能否接触到新生儿的大脑。本项目的目的是评估母亲产前压力和营养不良对新生儿大脑结构和功能的影响，并将成像测量与儿童早期认知结果联系起来。拟议的R01研究是arra资助的R01评估青少年怀孕期间的生物心理社会压力和营养的后续研究。具体来说，我们对怀孕的青少年（15 -19岁）及其婴儿有三个主要目的：(1)确定母亲产前压力和营养之间的关系，以及新生儿大脑发育的变化（来自多模态成像）。(2)确定特定学习和记忆任务缺陷的神经基础，以及与产前压力和营养不足相关的认知发展的一般指标。(3)确定母亲关怀（即母亲敏感性和母婴依恋类型）与婴儿新兴学习记忆能力之间的双向影响。在这些产前暴露和婴儿认知之间建立大脑相关的关系，有可能有助于明确孕期常见的两种经历——高压力和营养不足——对子宫内发育的影响，这两种经历甚至在出生前就可能限制儿童未来的学习。这些结果将对政策和早期干预方法具有重大的公共卫生意义。它们还有助于识别与暴露相关的“大脑特征”，用于诊断和治疗，就像抑郁症的成像研究中出现的那样。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Children's neurocognitive development can cast long shadows on their futures, dramatically influencing their occupational functioning and psychosocial adjustment. While it is increasingly recognized that normative variation in early environmental experiences (i.e. parenting style), plays a significant role in shaping cognitive development, evidence indicates that the impact of the environment on cognitive development begins in utero. Two common experiences during pregnancy, psychosocial stress and inadequate micronutrient intake - prominently, iron and zinc, affect outcomes. Prenatal anxiety predicts delayed mental and motor development on the Bayley Scales in infancy, and a reduction in gray matter in the middle temporal lobe based on brain imaging in school-age children. Animal models have demonstrated that antenatal corticosteroid administration is associated with neurocognitive disabilities (i.e. difficulty learning) and structural brain changes such as reduction in hippocampal volume. Infants born to Zinc-deficient mothers show signs of memory impairment. Across both prenatal exposures, what differentiates the animal from the human studies is access to the neonatal brain. The goal of this project is to assess the influence of maternal prenatal stress and poor nutrition on neonatal brain structure and function, and to relate the imaging measures to cognitive outcomes in early childhood. The pro- posed R01 study is a follow-up to an ARRA-funded R01 assessing biopsychosocial stress and nutrition during adolescent pregnancy. Specifically, we have three primary aims to be carried out with pregnant adolescents (ages 15 -19) and their infants: (1) To determine associations between maternal antenatal stress and nutrition, and variation in newborn brain development (from multi-modal imaging). (2) To determine the neural bases of deficits in specific learning and memory tasks, and a general index of cognitive development, associated with prenatal stress and inadequate nutrition. (3) To determine the bidirectional influences between maternal care (i.e. maternal sensitivity and mother-infant attachment style) and infants' emerging learning and memory capacities. Establishing brain-associated relationships between these prenatal exposures and infant cognition has the potential to help specify the in utero developmental effects of two experiences common to pregnancy, high stress and inadequate nutrition, potentially constraining children's future learning even before birth. Such results would have significant public health relevance with respect to policy and early intervention approaches. They also could contribute to the identification of exposure-related 'brain signatures' to be used for diagnostic and treatment purposes, much as is emerging in imaging studies of depression. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The goal of this project is to assess the relationship between maternal prenatal stress and poor nutrition and newborn babies' brain structure and function, and to relate multi-modal imaging measures (MRI) of the new- born baby's brain to neurocognitive outcomes in early childhood. Establishing brain-associated relationships between these prenatal exposures and infant cognition has the potential to specify how women's experiences during pregnancy influence their baby's development, potentially affecting children's future learning even be- fore birth. These results could be very relevant to public health and could inform policy, early intervention approaches, and help to identify brain features that could inform diagnosis and treatment.