Neural, Hormonal, and Behavioral Development following Prenatal Stress Exposure Public
Hendrix, Cassandra (Summer 2020)
Published
Abstract
Exposure to adversity, such as childhood maltreatment and discrimination, as well as an individual’s response to adversity (i.e., stress) increases risk for psychological illness, and may have intergenerational effects on an individual’s offspring. The prenatal period has been identified as a sensitive time when the effects of maternal stress exposure may be transmitted to her fetus, having lifelong effects on development into the next generation. But what are the biobehavioral processes that are impacted by maternal stress exposure and how early in development can we identify these intergenerational effects? The present dissertation is composed of two studies that answer this question, focusing on behavioral and biological processes that underlie adaptive stress regulation. In Study 1, the influence of maternal adversity and psychological distress on infant behavioral adaptation to a stressor and infant diurnal cortisol is examined. Study 2 extends these findings by examining how neural circuitry that may underlie these regulatory processes is shaped by maternal stress in infants as young as 1 month old. Importantly, both studies consider stress during pregnancy as well as adversity from other sensitive times in the mother’s life, such as her own childhood, in order to explore the novel hypothesis that a mother’s early life stress exerts competing or additive effects on her child’s development relative to prenatal stress. Moreover, these questions are examined in a sample of African American mother-infant dyads, a group that is disproportionately affected by intergenerational stress exposure. We found greater levels of late pregnancy maternal stress to predict less mature infant attention in the context of a mild stressor paradigm, which in turn predicted enhanced infant diurnal cortisol responsiveness (Study 1). Maternal experiences of discrimination and adversity from her own childhood also predicted heightened prenatal distress and conferred indirect influences on infant attention. The importance of maternal early life stress was further supported by Study 2 findings; maternal experiences of emotional neglect from her own childhood predicted stronger frontoamygdala neural connectivity in her 1-month-old infant, even after controlling for maternal reports of prenatal stress. Taken together, these findings indicate robust associations between maternal early life adversity and infant biobehavioral development and highlight the need to consider the intergenerational effects of maternal childhood adversity on the development of her child’s stress regulation from the earliest stages of life.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1................................General Introduction
Paper 1: Prenatal distress mediates the association between maternal early life adversity and infant stress functioning
18...............................Title
19...............................Abstract
20...............................Introduction
27...............................Methods
38...............................Results
46...............................Discussion
Paper 2: Moving beyond prenatal stress: Maternal childhood adversity predicts frontoamygdala connectivity in neonates
54...............................Title
55...............................Abstract
56...............................Introduction
59...............................Methods
66...............................Results
72...............................Discussion
77...............................General Discussion
88...............................References
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