Poster #7 - Associations of Pregnancy-Related Anxiety and Infant White Matter Microstructure

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Background: The prenatal period is a time of rapid growth for the fetal brain. Axonal connections between brain regions are largely established at birth, while refinement and myelination of these white matter connections isn’t fully matured until adulthood. White matter (WM) microstructure is fundamental for the transmission of neural communication throughout the brain. Prenatal maternal stress has been proposed to have disrupt normative aspects of fetal WM maturation and subsequent infant brain development (Fitzgerald et al., 2020). Existing research suggests that pregnancy-related anxiety (PrA) may have stronger associations with children’s executive function and cognitive outcomes, such as inhibitory control and visuospatial working memory compared with general anxiety or depressive symptoms (Buss et al., 2011). Therefore, the current study aims to investigate associations between PrA and newborns’ WM development of the cingulum and uncinate fasciculus (UNC), which play important roles in later cognitive and executive functions.
Methods: The current study is part of an ongoing longitudinal research – Brain & Early Experiences (BEE) study. Mothers’ PrA was measured during late pregnancy by Pregnancy Related Anxiety Questionnaire (PRAQ). Diffusion MRI data were acquired on 3T Prisma scanner when infants were 2-weeks-old. After quality control of the DTI data, 90 subjects were included in preliminary analyses (Demographic characteristics shown in Table 1). Multivariate linear regression models were used to test whether mothers’ PrA was associated with UNC and cingulum WM microstructure at 2-weeks of age. Three diffusion parameters were included for each tract as outcome variables: fractional anisotropy (FA), radial diffusivity (RD) and axial diffusivity (AD). Infant gestational age at scan (days) was included as a covariate. For tracts that showed significant associations with PrA, follow-up analyses were conducted to further investigate the nature of the WM microstructure associations. In further data analyses, we plan to incorporate other covariates that have been found relevant to infants’ brain development, such as substance use and socioeconomic status (Chang et al., 2016; Ursache et al., 2016).
Preliminary results: The multivariate regression results suggested that PrA scores are significantly associated with cingulum and UNC WM microstructure bilaterally (Table 2). Follow-up analyses indicate that infants whose mothers reported higher PrA showed lower FA (\beta= -0.007, t_{\left(86\right)} = -2.187, p= .031) and lower AD (\beta= -1.829\times{10}^{-5}, t_{\left(86\right)}\ = -2.310, p= .023) in the right cingulum and lower FA in the right UF (\beta= -0.006, t_{\left(86\right)} = -2.014, p= .047).
Discussion and future directions: According to the preliminary results, elevated PrA during later pregnancy is negatively associated with WM integrity in cingulum and UF in the right hemisphere in newborns. As both FA and AD increase with brain maturation, the results suggest that PrA may reflect slower WM maturation in these limbic tracts. This is aligned with existing findings of the negative association between exposure to prenatal maternal depression and anxiety and infants’ WM integrity (Dean et al., 2018; Graham, 2020). After adding other covariates in further analyses, we expect the negative effects of PrA on WM microstructure to stay significant.

Authors

• Xiaoxu Rong, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author

• Cathi Propper, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Kirsten McLaughlin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Sarah J Short, University of Wisconsin - Madison