The Influence of Maternal Depression during Pregnancy on Neonatal Fiber Tract Integrity

Abstract

Introduction: Prenatal maternal depression is a common complication and has been associated with poor mental health outcomes and altered brain structure in the child. Neurobiological mechanisms mediating these outcomes remain unclear to date. To yield more knowledge surrounding this, it would be interesting to examine how prenatal maternal depression may impact neonatal brain structures that play key roles in optimal mental health. Two such structures are the fornix and the uncinate fasciculus (UF). Aim: To explore the influence of maternal depression during pregnancy on microstructural integrity of the white matter tracts of the fornix and uncinate fasciculus in newborns. Materials and Methods: 87 mother-infant pairs were included. Inclusion criteria were pregnant women in the first trimester and who after birth were deemed obstetrically free of complications. Exclusion criteria were maternal use of psychotropic medicines, corticosteroids, or tobacco or other drugs, gestational age at birth <34 weeks, congenital, genetic or other major neurological disorders at birth. Depressive symptoms were measured with a standard questionnaire. Neonatal white matter maturation was measured with diffusion tensor imaging. The relationship between these parameters was analyzed with ANOVA models. Results: Prenatal maternal depression during the third trimester was positively correlated with higher fractional anisotropy in 12 consecutive points along the tract of the right UF in boys (p=0.0428). No other significant (p<0.05) associations were found with sex, tracts or trimesters. Conclusions: Maternal depression affects the maturation of the fetal male brain. The consequence of this for child affective problems should be examined in longitudinal studies.