Maternal childhood maltreatment: associations to offspring brain volume and white matter connectivity

Abstract

The deleterious effects of adversity are likely intergenerational, such that one generation's adverse experiences can affect the next. Epidemiological studies link maternal adversity to offspring depression and anxiety, possibly via transmission mechanisms that influence offspring fronto-limbic connectivity. However, studies have not thoroughly disassociated postnatal exposure effects nor considered the role of offspring sex. We utilized infant neuroimaging to test the hypothesis that maternal childhood maltreatment (CM) would be associated with increased fronto-limbic connectivity in infancy and tested brain-behavior associations in childhood. Ninety-two dyads participated (32 mothers with CM, 60 without; 52 infant females, 40 infant males). Women reported on their experiences of CM and non-sedated sleeping infants underwent MRIs at 2.44 ± 2.74 weeks. Brain volumes were estimated via structural MRI and white matter structural connectivity (fiber counts) via diffusion MRI with probabilistic tractography. A subset of parents (n = 36) reported on children's behaviors at age 5.17 ± 1.73 years. Males in the maltreatment group demonstrated greater intra-hemispheric fronto-limbic connectivity (b = 0.96, p= 0.008, [95%CI 0.25, 1.66]), no differences emerged for females. Fronto-limbic connectivity was related to somatic complaints in childhood only for males (r = 0.673, p = 0.006). Our findings suggest that CM could have intergenerational associations to offspring brain development, yet mechanistic studies are needed.

Keywords: Adversity; infant neuroimaging; intergenerational transmission.

Figure 1.

Principal components representing volumetric and connectivity variables. Visual representation of volumetric and structural connectivity variable loadings onto the 5 principal components. a. The outermost labels indicate the individual connectivity and volumetric variables included in analyses; color arcs represent the five components yielded via Varimax. The numbers in the inner rings represent the loadings for each variable onto the component, thresholded at 0.5 for interpretability. b. Exampleof an individual infant’s white matter connectivity. White matter tracts colored in orange loaded into the intra-hemispheric fronto-limbic connectivity component, tracts colored in green loaded into the right ACC–left PFC connectivity component.

Figure 2.

Associations between maternal childhood maltreatment, infant offspring brain structure, and depressive symptoms in early childhood. a. Significant infant sex by maternal childhood maltreatment (CM; n = 92) interactions were observed across the intra-hemispheric fronto-limbic connectivity component. Error bars are shown. Males with a maternal history of CM (n = 15) showed increased connectivity compared to males without a history of CM (n = 25). No differences were found within females. Units on y-axis represent the principal component scores, higher values indicate higher connectivity and or volumetric scores on the variables represented by the principal component. b. A significant main effect of CM was observed on the right ACC-left PFC connectivity component. Infants of mothers with a history of CM showed decreased connectivity, but only when controlling for prenatal distress and substance use.