An examination of maternal prenatal BMI and human fetal brain development

Bibliographic Data

ID21344271
AuthorsMegan E Norr (0000-0003-4828-0913, Department of Psychology University of California Berkeley Berkeley CA USA, corresponding author), Jasmine L Hect (0000-0003-2562-2394, Department of Psychology Wayne State University Detroit MI USA), Carly J Lenniger (Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry New York University Medical Center New York NY USA), Carly Lenniger (Columbia University Irving Medical Center), Martijn P Van Den Heuvel (0000-0003-1570-1195, Amsterdam Neuroscience), Martijn Van den Heuvel (Dutch Connectome Lab Department of Complex Trait Genetics Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Amsterdam The Netherlands), Moriah E Thomason (0000-0001-9745-1147, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry New York University Medical Center New York NY USA, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume62
Issue4
Pages458-469
Publication date2021-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9630 • E-ISSN: 1469-7610
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jcpp.13301
PMID32779186
OpenAlexW3048637032
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited93

BACKGROUND: Prenatal development is a time when the brain is acutely vulnerable to insult and alteration by environmental factors (e.g., toxins, maternal health). One important risk factor is maternal obesity (Body Mass Index > 30). Recent research indicates that high maternal BMI during pregnancy is associated with increased risk for numerous physical health, cognitive, and mental health problems in offspring across the lifespan. It is possible that heightened maternal prenatal BMI influences the developing brain even before birth. METHODS: The present study examines this possibility at the level of macrocircuitry in the human fetal brain. Using a data-driven strategy for parcellating the brain into subnetworks, we test whether MRI functional connectivity within or between fetal neural subnetworks varies with maternal prenatal BMI in 109 fetuses between the ages of 26 and 39weeks. RESULTS: We discovered that strength of connectivity between two subnetworks, left anterior insula/inferior frontal gyrus (aIN/IFG) and bilateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), varied with maternal BMI. At the level of individual aIN/IFG-PFC connections, we observed both increased and decreased between-network connectivity with a tendency for increased within-hemisphere connectivity and reduced cross-hemisphere connectivity in higher BMI pregnancies. Maternal BMI was not associated with global differences in network topography based on network-based statistical analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Overall effects were localized in regions that will later support behavioral regulation and integrative processes, regions commonly associated with obesity-related deficits. By establishing onset in neural differences prior to birth, this study supports a model in which maternal BMI-related risk is associated with fetal connectome-level brain organization with implications for offspring long-term cognitive development and mental health

Developmental psychology · Fetus · Pregnancy · Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications · Fetal and Pediatric Neurological Disorders · Functional Brain Connectivity Studies · Genetics · Psychology

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