Neural, Hormonal, and Behavioral Development following Prenatal Stress Exposure Open Access

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

 

About this Dissertation

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Psychology
Subfield / Discipline	Clinical Psychology
Degree	Ph.D.
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Psychobiology
Keyword	Pregnancy Infancy Neurobiology Stress Intergenerational
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Patricia Brennan, Emory University
Committee Members	Daniel Dilks, Emory University Michael Treadway, Emory University Elaine Walker, Emory University Jocelyne Bachevalier, Emory University

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