Maternal Childhood Maltreatment Predicts Lower Infant Grey Matter Volume to Two Years of Age

• In Event: Neurobiological Effects of Early Adversity: Intergenerational Transmission and Intervention

Abstract

Worldwide prevalence rates of child maltreatment range between 12% and 36% (Stoltenborgh et al., 2015), and the effects of maltreatment are transmitted across generations, with offspring of maltreated parents at increased risk of physical and behavioral problems (Plant et al., 2018; Roberts et al., 2014). Buss et al. (2017) have called for the identification of mechanisms accounting for such intergenerational transmission. One prior study (Moog et al., 2018) demonstrated that maternal childhood maltreatment (CM) was associated with smaller grey matter volume (GMV) in newborns.
The aim of the present study was to assess whether the link between maternal CM and grey matter volume persisted over the first two years of life. Based on prior literature regarding intergenerational transmission (Moog et al., 2018), we hypothesized that higher maternal CM would be associated with lower total brain volume (TBV) and lower GMV, but not lower CSFV. Further, we explored whether there were specific morphometric effects on stress-sensitive brain regions over the first two years, namely, the amygdala and hippocampus.
Fifty mother-infant dyads participated in the study. The sample was stratified to oversample mothers with a history of CM. Mothers were assessed at 4 months infant age for experiences of childhood maltreatment using both the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) screening questionnaire (Felitti et al., 1998) and the more detailed Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure scale (MACE; Teicher & Parigger, 2015). Both have shown good validity in relation to similar measures and to important ecological outcomes (e.g. Teicher & Parigger, 2015). Between 4 and 24 months (M infant age= 11.92 months, SD= 5.95 months), infants completed a structural MRI scan performed by a 3T Siemens scanner. T1 data were aligned on the AC-PC plane with Freeview and automatically segmented.
The impact of maternal CM on infant brain volume was assessed after controlling for postnatal risk factors, infant age at MRI, and infant sex. Both the ACE (β = -.229, SE = .088, 95% CI [-.396, -.057]) and MACE (β = -.192, SE = .090, 95% CI [-.363, -.009]) total scores predicted lower infant GMV, but not TBV or CSFV. No significant effects of maternal CM were detected on infant amygdala volume or hippocampal volume.
Results indicated that maternal CM has a negative effect on infant grey matter development over the first two years of life. This finding complements and extends the Moog et al. (2018) finding that maternal CM was associated with lower infant grey matter volume at birth. Additional research is needed to identify the prenatal and postnatal biological and behavioral mechanisms that might account for this troubling effect of maternal CM. Importantly, the ACE screening tool for childhood maltreatment yielded the same effects as the more detailed and difficult-to-administer MACE inventory. This finding opens the way for widespread screening for maternal CM early in pregnancy to provide early identification and intervention for infants at risk for lowered grey matter volume in early development.

Authors

• Jennifer E. Khoury, McMaster University
  Presenting Author

• Banu Ahtam, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Michelle Bosquet Enlow, Harvard Medical School
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ellen Grant, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Karlen Lyons-Ruth, Harvard Medical School
  Non-Presenting Author