Prenatal developmental origins of behavior and mental health: The influence of maternal stress in pregnancy

• Published in: Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews Vol. 117; pp. 26 - 64
• Main Authors: Van den Bergh, Bea R.H., van den Heuvel, Marion I., Lahti, Marius, Braeken, Marijke, de Rooij, Susanne R., Entringer, Sonja, Hoyer, Dirk, Roseboom, Tessa, Räikkönen, Katri, King, Suzanne, Schwab, Matthias
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2020
• Subjects: Anxiety; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); Autism; Autonomic nervous system; Brain network connectivity; Cortisol; Depression; Disaster exposure; EEG; Epigenetics; Event related potential (ERP); Female; Fetal programming; Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); Gut microbiome; Heart rate variability; HPA-axis; Humans; Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System; Life events; Male; Maternal psychological distress; Mental Health; Objective stress; Pituitary-Adrenal System; Pregnancy; Pregnancy-specific anxiety; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; Psychiatric disorders; Schizophrenia; Stress, Psychological; Telomere biology; Objective stress; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); EEG; Schizophrenia; Depression; Cortisol; Event related potential (ERP); Fetal programming; HPA-axis; Pregnancy-specific anxiety; Maternal psychological distress; Autism; Life events; Autonomic nervous system; Telomere biology; Epigenetics; Anxiety; Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); Psychiatric disorders; Gut microbiome; Heart rate variability; Disaster exposure; Brain network connectivity
• ISSN: 0149-7634; 1873-7528; 1873-7528
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.07.003

•Maternal psychological distress, life event stress, and objective exposure affect offspring outcome.•Functional and structural brain changes underlie the problems observed in the offspring.•Alterations in stress system, immune system, and gut microbiome play a significant role.•Epigenetic and telomere biology mechanisms are beginning to be explored.•Interventions focused on offspring also need to be guided by knowledge of changes in biological systems. Accumulating research shows that prenatal exposure to maternal stress increases the risk for behavioral and mental health problems later in life. This review systematically analyzes the available human studies to identify harmful stressors, vulnerable periods during pregnancy, specificities in the outcome and biological correlates of the relation between maternal stress and offspring outcome. Effects of maternal stress on offspring neurodevelopment, cognitive development, negative affectivity, difficult temperament and psychiatric disorders are shown in numerous epidemiological and case-control studies. Offspring of both sexes are susceptible to prenatal stress but effects differ. There is not any specific vulnerable period of gestation; prenatal stress effects vary for different gestational ages possibly depending on the developmental stage of specific brain areas and circuits, stress system and immune system. Biological correlates in the prenatally stressed offspring are: aberrations in neurodevelopment, neurocognitive function, cerebral processing, functional and structural brain connectivity involving amygdalae and (pre)frontal cortex, changes in hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis and autonomous nervous system.