“Overlapping and Discrete Pathways Through Which Prenatal Isolation and Uncertainty Stress Impact Maternal Mental Health and Child Neurodevelopment

项目摘要 产前期被认为是人类发育中最敏感的阶段之一。发生的事件 在怀孕期间，可以改变发展的过程，并产生持久的影响。目前，COVID-19大流行是 对全世界孕妇的生活产生广泛影响。特别突出的流行病- 孕妇经历的相关压力源是社会孤立和不确定性压力。 有大量的生理和行为文献表明，社会隔离和不确定性压力会影响 典型的人类和动物的心理生物学功能，但缺乏关于这些功能的知识。 条件可能会影响孕妇的身体和心理健康， 这些变化的后果可能是她发育中的孩子。本提案的中心目标是 建立关于产前社会隔离和不确定性压力对孕产妇的影响的基础知识 心理生物学和婴儿神经行为。我们将探讨几个候选的生理系统， 母亲阐明的机制，产妇压力和儿童的结果之间的关联。 为了实现这些目标，我们将从纽约市的一个大型队列中招募200名女性， 纳入一项前瞻性纵向研究，其中将包括产前和产后生物标本 在6个月、12个月和24个月时进行收集和儿童神经行为评估。多模态神经成像 战略，包括婴儿脑电图和定量MRI，以及创新的远程生物物理数据收集 将采取战略。该项目的主要目的是（一）研究产前社会影响， 隔离和不确定性压力对产妇生物学和产后心理健康的影响;（二）评估 母亲产前社会隔离和不确定性对婴儿神经行为发育的压力;以及（iii） 研究产前社会隔离和不确定性压力对母婴双向互动的作用。 因此，我们将能够有意义地评估产前社会孤立和不确定性是否以及如何影响 压力改变了母亲的生物学和情感，以及这些影响对婴儿的神经行为后果。 这项工作将构成我们对产前检查的纵向影响的理解的一个实质性进展。 心理社会压力暴露，潜在的机械途径，以及儿童神经行为的起源 紊乱

PROJECT SUMMARY The prenatal period is regarded as one of the most sensitive phases in human development. Events that occur during gestation can alter the course of development with lasting impact. Presently, the COVID-19 pandemic is exerting wide-spread impact on the lives of expectant mothers around the world. Particularly salient pandemic- related stressors that are being experienced by pregnant women are social isolation and uncertainty stress. There is ample physiological and behavioral literature showing that social isolation and uncertainty stress affect typical human and animal psychobiological functioning, but there is an absence of knowledge about how these conditions might impact the physical and psychological health of a pregnant woman, and what the consequences of those changes might be for her developing child. The central objective of this proposal is to build foundational knowledge about the effects of prenatal social isolation and uncertainty stress on maternal psychobiology and infant neurobehavior. We will explore several candidate physiological systems in the mother to elucidate mechanisms that underlie associations between maternal stressors and child outcomes. To achieve these goals, we will recruit 200 women from a large New York City cohort established at the height of the pandemic into a prospective, longitudinal study that will include pre- and postnatal biospecimen collection and child neurobehavioral assessments at 6-, 12- and 24 months. Multi-modal neuroimaging strategies, including infant EEG and quantitative MRI, and innovative remote biophysical data collection strategies will be employed. The primary aims of this project are to (i) examine the impact of prenatal social isolation and uncertainty stress on maternal biology and postnatal mental health; (ii) evaluate the influence of maternal prenatal social isolation and uncertainty stress on infant neurobehavioral development; and (iii) examine the role of prenatal social isolation and uncertainty stress on mother-infant bi-directional interactions. We will thus be able to meaningfully evaluate whether, and how, prenatal social isolation and uncertainty stress modify maternal biology and affect, and the neurobehavioral consequences of those impacts on infants. Such work would constitute a substantial advance in our understanding of the longitudinal effects of prenatal psychosocial stress exposures, the underlying mechanistic pathways, and the origins of child neurobehavioral disorders.