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Associations between maternal stress and infant brain activity in a low-income sample

Fri, March 24, 8:30 to 10:00am, Salt Palace Convention Center, Meeting Room 355 F

Abstract

Maternal stress has been linked with negative outcomes in children's socioemotional and language development, particularly among children raised in socioeconomically disadvantaged circumstances (Merz, Wiltshire, & Noble, 2018; Shonkoff, 2009). Of increasing interest for prevention, intervention, and policy is ascertaining the relations between maternal reports of stress and functional brain activity during a child’s first year of life.

Among typically developing children, studies using electroencephalography (EEG) have shown that the relative contribution of lower-frequency resting EEG power (e.g., theta) decreases with age, whereas the relative contribution of higher-frequency resting EEG power (e.g., alpha, beta, gamma) increases with age (Marshall, Bar-Haim, & Fox, 2002). A variety of high-stress environments have been linked to alterations in this typical pattern of functional brain development (Harmony et al., 1988; Marshall, Reeb, Fox, Nelson, & Zeanah, 2008; Troller-Renfree et al., 2022). Specifically, children raised in higher-stress environments tend to show more lower-frequency brain power and less higher-frequency power, compared to their peers raised in lower-stress environments.

Several studies have identified stress-related changes in brain activity in early childhood, across different circumstances. One hallmark study showed that institutionalized children showed increased theta power, as well as reduced alpha and beta power, by 22 months of age, compared to never-institutionalized children (Marshall, Fox, & BEIP Core Group, 2004). Two other studies have found that higher maternal stress is associated with increased lower-frequency power and decreased higher-frequency power during the first year of life (Pierce et al., 2019; Troller-Renfree et al., 2020). Such altered patterns of EEG activity can persist throughout childhood and early adolescence (Otero, 1994, 1997; Otero, Pliego-Rivero, Fernández, & Ricardo, 2003; Vanderwert, Marshall, Nelson, Zeanah, & Fox, 2010), suggesting that the experience of stress may have long-term impacts on neurodevelopmental functioning. Finally, though not directly measuring stress per se, a recent study by Troller-Renfree and colleagues (2022) investigated the impact of monthly, unconditional cash support on infant brain activity in the Baby’s First Years (BFY) randomized control trial of poverty reduction. Infants whose mothers were randomized to receive a large monthly unconditional cash gift showed greater higher-frequency power than infants whose mothers were randomized to receive a small monthly cash gift.

The present manuscript examines the associations between stress and functional brain activity at 12 months of age within the BFY low-cash gift group (N = 247). Using a multi-dimensional stress composite (Troller-Renfree et al., 2022), preliminary results suggest that increased maternal report of stress is associated with increased whole-brain lower-frequency (theta) power (ß =.012, p = .038) and decreased whole-brain higher-frequency (beta) power (ß = -.004, p = .042). Follow-up regional analyses show a complementary pattern with increased maternal reports of stress being associated with more frontal (ß = .015, p = .010) and parietal (ß = .014, p = .034) lower-frequency (theta) and less frontal higher-frequency (alpha ß = -.010, p = .022 and beta ß = -.004, p = .046) power. Altogether, these results add to a growing body of literature suggesting that early life stress may alter patterns of functional brain activity.

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