Background Childhood maltreatment exposure (CME) can lead to adverse long-term consequences for the exposed individual. Emerging evidence suggests that the long-term effect of CME may be transmitted across generations, starting already during prenatal development. Methods In this study, we measured brain grey and white matter volumes from MR images in 62 healthy neonates at 2–5 weeks of gestation corrected age and obtained Trauma and Distress Scale (TADS) questionnaire data from both parents. Results We found that paternal CME associated positively with neonate supratentorial grey matter volumes while the association for the maternal TADS scores was not statistically significant. Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI associated with supratentorial white matter volumes, but not with parental CME. Conclusions We are the first to report that paternal CME is linked with variation in newborn cortical volume. Our results imply an intergenerational transmission of paternal CME to offspring. Elucidating the later relevance of these associations and mechanisms involved remains an enticing avenue for future studies.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2022/10/20/2022.10.16.512276.full.pdf

Associations of Cumulative Paternal and Maternal Childhood Maltreament Exposure with Neonate Brain Anatomy

Machine Learning and Prediction in Fetal, Infant, and Toddler Neuroimaging: A Review and Primer

The Infant Brain: A Critical Antecedent of Psychiatric Risk

An Opportunity to Increase Collaborative Science in Fetal, Infant, and Toddler Neuroimaging

Importance: Developmental dyslexia (dyslexia) is a genetic-based learning disorder affecting 7-10% of the general population and has detrimental impacts on mental health and vocational potential. Individuals with dyslexia show altered functional organization of the language and reading neural networks; however, it remains unknown how early these neural network alterations emerge in association with familial(genetic) vulnerability to dyslexia. Objective: To determine whether the early development of large-scale functional neural connectivity is altered as a function of familial risk for dyslexia. Design: This cohort study included 98 infants with (FHD+) and without (FHD-) a familial history of dyslexia recruited at Boston Children's Hospital (BCH) between May 2011 and February 2019. Setting: Participants underwent structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging in the Department of Pediatric Radiology at BCH. Participants: FHD+ infants were defined as having at least one first-degree relative with dyslexia or reading difficulties and infants without familial risk for dyslexia (i.e., FHD-) were controls. Main outcomes and measures: Whole-brain functional connectivity patterns associated with 20 pre-defined cerebral regions important for long-term language and reading development were computed for each infant. Multivariate pattern analyses were applied to identify specific functional connectivity patterns that differentiated between FHD+ and FHD- infants. Results: The final sample consisted of 35 FHD+ (mean = 8.9 months, SD = 2.4 months, 15 females) and 63 FHD- (mean = 8.3, SD = 2.3 months, 36 females) infants. Multivariate pattern analyses identified distinctive functional connectivity patterns between the FHD+ and FHD- infants in the left fusiform gyrus (LFFG: accuracy = 0.55, p < 0.001, corrected, effect size: Cohen's d = 0.76, 99% CI of the classification performance (classification accuracy-chance level) = [0.046, 0.062]). Moreover, the top five connections with the greatest contribution to the classification performance connected LFFG with the frontal and temporoparietal regions of the language network. Conclusion and relevance: The current study demonstrates that familial vulnerability to dyslexia is associated with an early onset of atypical functional connectivity of regions important for subsequent word form recognition during reading acquisition. Longitudinal studies linking the atypical functional network and school-age reading (dis)abilities will be essential for further elucidating the ontogenetic mechanisms underlying the development of dyslexia.

L. Zollei

Papers

An Opportunity to Increase Collaborative Science in Fetal, Infant, and Toddler Neuroimaging

Atypical functional connectivity of the left fusiform gyrus in infants at familial risk for developmental dyslexia