Perinatal Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Brain Connectivity Among 9- to 15-Year-Old Offspring

Are prenatal and postnatal maternal depressive symptoms associated with a change in child functional brain connectivity from childhood to adolescence?In this population-based cohort study of 2825 mother-child dyads, prenatal, but not postnatal, maternal depressive symptoms were associated with a steeper increase in functional brain network integration and segregation from childhood to adolescence. Among children exposed to clinically relevant prenatal maternal depressive symptoms, more severe internalizing problems were associated with greater increases in brain network integration.These findings suggest that prenatal maternal depressive symptoms are associated with changes in the offspring brain functional network, particularly during adolescence.

Corresponding Author: Henning Tiemeier, MD, PhD, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave, Kresge Building, Room 619, Boston, MA 02115 (tiemeier@hsph.harvard.edu).

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