Claudia Buss

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that even modest decreases in the duration of gestation can exert profound and lasting effects on neurodevelopment for both term and preterm infants and may contribute to long-term risk for health and disease.

TL;DR: Examples of the many emergent themes of the DOHaD approach are reviewed, including theoretical advances related to predictive adaptive responses of the fetus to a broad range of environmental cues, empirical observations of effects of overnutrition and stress during pregnancy on outcomes in childhood and adulthood, and potential epigenetic mechanisms that may underlie these observations and theory.

TL;DR: A model is proposed where the observed reduction in limbic system activity is essential for the initiation of the stress response, and suggests elevated activation at rest and during nonstressful situations.

TL;DR: Higher maternal cortisol levels in early gestation was associated with more affective problems in girls, and this association was mediated, in part, by amygdala volume, while no association between maternal cortisol in pregnancy and child hippocampus volume was observed in either sex.

TL;DR: This is the first prospective study to show that a specific temporal pattern of pregnancy anxiety is related to specific changes in brain morphology, and altered gray matter volume in brain regions affected by prenatal maternal anxiety may render the developing individual more vulnerable to neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders as well as cognitive and intellectual impairment.