Hot flashes impair memory performance
New study suggests hot flashes may alter hippocampal and prefrontal cortex function to decrease verbal memory
January 23, 2020
Science Daily/The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)
If you're having difficulty identifying the right word to express yourself clearly or remembering a story correctly, you may blame menopause. A new study suggests that physiologic hot flashes are associated with decreased verbal memory and with alterations in brain function during encoding and retrieval of memory, especially in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Study results are published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).
Previous studies have already shown that women experience a decline in memory for verbal material, such as words and stories, as they transition through menopause. In this new study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to document the occurrence of physiologic hot flashes and their specific effect on hippocampal and prefrontal cortex function during encoding and recognition conditions of a memory task. The strengths of this study are in the use of physiologic hot flash monitoring to confirm the hot flash versus relying on patient recall and the use of functional MRI to specifically evaluate real-time changes occurring within the brain during the memory testing.
Although larger studies are needed to fully evaluate the reliability of the relationship between hot flashes and altered brain function, this study provides new insights into specific areas in the brain involved in memory that appear to be adversely affected by hot flashes.
The study results appear in the article "Hot flashes are associated with altered brain function during a memory task."
"The findings of this preliminary study, although small, support an association between objectively monitored hot flashes and adverse functional changes in the brain that affect memory. Further study is needed to determine whether hot flashes actually cause these brain changes and whether treatment of hot flashes will prevent or normalize them," says Dr. Stephanie Faubion, NAMS medical director.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200123095859.htm
Maternal depression and atopic dermatitis in children linked
January 21, 2020
Science Daily/George Washington University
A recent study suggests that maternal depression in the postpartum period, and even beyond, is associated with the development of atopic dermatitis throughout childhood and adolescence.
Maternal depression in the postpartum period, and even beyond, is associated with the development of atopic dermatitis (AD) throughout childhood and adolescence, according to a recent study published in the journal Dermatitis.
AD is a chronic, inflammatory skin disease typically characterized by itch, pain, and sleep disturbance. It has also been strongly linked to a number of mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.
The study, led by Jonathan Silverberg, MD, PhD, MPH, associate professor of dermatology at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, examined the association of maternal depression in the postpartum period, and maternal and paternal depression in later childhood with AD in U.S. children and adolescents.
Silverberg conducted the data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in collaboration with first author Costner McKenzie, a medical student at Northwestern.
"We know that emotional factors can exacerbate AD flares and influence the course of the disease," said Silverberg, the senior author of the study. "Previous studies have shown that family environment and other environmental factors can have an impact on AD."
The researchers analyzed data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. They found that postpartum depression was associated with higher odds of AD developing later in childhood, more persistent AD, and increased sleep disturbance among children with AD.
"Our results further suggest that postpartum depression is associated with AD even in older children and adolescents, with more persistent disease and greater sleep disturbance," Silverberg said. "This could potentially suggest more severe AD."
Continued research is needed, according to the researchers, to confirm the associations found, determine underlying mechanisms, and identify appropriate interventions. The authors of the study suggest that pediatricians should consider screening and early intervention for postpartum depression to identify infants at higher risk for AD.
Children born to mothers with depression in the postpartum period and beyond may warrant increased screening for AD and atopic disease, as well as use of gentle skin care and other strategies to mitigate AD.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200121133312.htm
Having less sex linked to earlier menopause
January 14, 2020
Science Daily/University College London
Women who engage in sexual activity weekly or monthly have a lower risk of entering menopause early relative to those who report having some form of sex less than monthly, according to a new UCL study.
The researchers observed that women, who reported engaging in sexual activity weekly, were 28% less likely to have experienced menopause at any given age than women who engaged in sexual activity less than monthly. Sexual activity includes sexual intercourse, oral sex, sexual touching and caressing or self-stimulation.
The research, published in Royal Society Open Science, is based on data from the USA's Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN). It's the largest, most diverse and most representative longitudinal cohort study available to research aspects of the menopause transition.
First author on the study, PhD candidate Megan Arnot (UCL Anthropology), said: "The findings of our study suggest that if a woman is not having sex, and there is no chance of pregnancy, then the body 'chooses' not to invest in ovulation, as it would be pointless. There may be a biological energetic trade-off between investing energy into ovulation and investing elsewhere, such as keeping active by looking after grandchildren.
"The idea that women cease fertility in order to invest more time in their family is known as the Grandmother Hypothesis, which predicts that the menopause originally evolved in humans to reduce reproductive conflict between different generations of females, and allow women to increase their inclusive fitness through investing in their grandchildren."
During ovulation, the woman's immune function is impaired, making the body more susceptible to disease. Given a pregnancy is unlikely due to a lack of sexual activity, then it would not be beneficial to allocate energy to a costly process, especially if there is the option to invest resources into existing kin.
The research is based on data collected from 2,936 women, recruited as the baseline cohort for the SWAN study in 1996/1997.
The mean age at first interview was 45 years old. Non-Hispanic Caucasian women were most represented in the sample (48%), and the majority of women were educated to above a high school level. On average they had two children, were mostly married or in a relationship (78%), and living with their partner (68%).
The women were asked to respond to several questions, including whether they had engaged in sex with their partner in the past six months, the frequency of sex including whether they engaged in sexual intercourse, oral sex, sexual touching or caressing in the last six months and whether they had engaged in self-stimulation in the past six months. The most frequent pattern of sexual activity was weekly (64%).
None of the women had yet entered menopause, but 46% were in early peri-menopause (starting to experience menopause symptoms, such as changes in period cycle and hot flashes) and 54% were pre-menopausal (having regular cycles and showing no symptoms of peri-menopause or menopause).
Interviews were carried out over a ten-year follow-up period, during which 1,324 (45%) of the 2,936 women experienced a natural menopause at an average age of 52.
By modelling the relationship between sexual frequency and the age of natural menopause, women of any age who had sex weekly had a hazard ratio of 0.72, whereas women of any age who had sex monthly had a hazard ratio of 0.81.
This provided a likelihood whereby women of any age who had sex weekly were 28% less likely to experience the menopause compared to those who had sex less than monthly. Likewise, those who had sex monthly were 19% less likely to experience menopause at any given age compared to those who had sex less than monthly.
The researchers controlled for characteristics including oestrogen level, education, BMI, race, smoking habits, age at first occurrence of menstruation, age at first interview and overall health.
The study also tested whether living with a male partner affected menopause as a proxy to test whether exposure to male pheromones delayed menopause. The researchers found no correlation, regardless of whether the male was present in the household or not. Last author, Professor Ruth Mace (UCL Anthropology), added: "The menopause is, of course, an inevitability for women, and there is no behavioural intervention that will prevent reproductive cessation. Nonetheless, these results are an initial indication that menopause timing may be adaptive in response to the likelihood of becoming pregnant."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200114224451.htm
Miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy may trigger long-term post-traumatic stress
January 14, 2020
Science Daily/Imperial College London
One in six women experience long-term post-traumatic stress following miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy.
This is the finding of the largest ever study into the psychological impact of early-stage pregnancy loss, from scientists at Imperial College London and KU Leuven in Belgium.
The research, published in the journal American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, studied over 650 women who had experienced an early pregnancy loss, of whom the majority had suffered an early miscarriage (defined as pregnancy loss before 12 weeks), or an ectopic pregnancy (where an embryo starts to grow outside the womb and is not viable).
The study revealed that one month following pregnancy loss, nearly a third of women (29 per cent) suffered post-traumatic stress while one in four (24 per cent) experienced moderate to severe anxiety, and one in ten (11 per cent) had moderate to severe depression.
Nine months later, 18 per cent of women had post-traumatic stress, 17 per cent moderate to severe anxiety, and 6 per cent had moderate to severe depression.
The team behind the research, funded by the Imperial Health Charity and the Imperial NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, call for immediate improvements in the care women receive following an early-stage pregnancy loss.
Professor Tom Bourne, lead author of the research from Tommy's National Centre for Miscarriage Research at Imperial College London said: "Pregnancy loss affects up to one in two women, and for many women it will be the most traumatic event in their life. This research suggests the loss of a longed-for child can leave a lasting legacy, and result in a woman still suffering post-traumatic stress nearly a year after her pregnancy loss."
Professor Bourne, who is also a Consultant Gynaecologist, added: "The treatment women receive following early pregnancy loss must change to reflect its psychological impact, and recent efforts to encourage people to talk more openly about this very common issue are a step in the right direction. Whilst general support and counselling will help many women, those with significant post-traumatic stress symptoms require specific treatment if they are going to recover fully. This is not widely available, and we need to consider screening women following an early pregnancy loss so we can identify those who most need help."
The research follows an earlier pilot study in 2016, which investigated the psychological impact of early-stage pregnancy loss in 128 women one and three months after miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy.
One in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage -- most often before or around 12 weeks. Estimates suggest there are 250,000 miscarriages every year in the UK, and around 11,000 emergency admissions for ectopic pregnancies. The latter always result in pregnancy loss, as an embryo grows in an area outside of the womb and is unable to develop.
In the study 537 women had suffered a miscarriage before 12 weeks of pregnancy, while 116 had suffered an ectopic pregnancy.
The women in the study attended the Early Pregnancy Assessment Units at three London hospitals -- Queen Charlottes and Chelsea, St Mary's, and Chelsea and Westminster.
All were asked to complete questionnaires about their emotions and behaviour one month after pregnancy loss, then again three and nine months later.
Their responses were compared to 171 women who had healthy pregnancies. The results revealed the latter women's levels of psychological symptoms were significantly lower than those found in women who had suffered early pregnancy loss.
The women in the study who met the criteria for post-traumatic stress reported regularly re-experiencing the feelings associated with the pregnancy loss, and suffering intrusive or unwanted thoughts about their miscarriage. Some women also reported having nightmares or flashbacks, while others avoided anything that might remind them of their loss.
The authors caution the study used a questionnaire for screening for post-traumatic stress, but formal diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder would require a clinical interview.
The team also explain that women who were already experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress and depression may have been more likely to respond to the questionnaire, which could mean the number of women suffering psychological symptoms may appear higher.
However, they add that the fact that such a large proportion were experiencing symptoms suggests many women could be suffering in silence. Dr Jessica Farren, first author of the research from Imperial College, and Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, said: "Post-traumatic stress can have a toxic effect on all elements of a person's life -- affecting work, home and relationships."
"We have made significant progress in recent years in breaking the silence around mental health issues in pregnancy and postnatally, but early pregnancy losses are still shrouded in secrecy, with very little acknowledgement of how distressing and profound an event they are. Many women don't tell colleagues, friends or family they are pregnant before the 12-week scan, leaving them feeling unable to discuss their emotions if they suffer a pregnancy loss. We also know partners can suffer psychological distress following miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy, and are investigating this in ongoing research."
The team's research will also now focus on identifying which women are at risk of developing psychological symptoms after pregnancy loss, the impact of early pregnancy loss on partners and also the best type of treatments and how to deliver these.
Ian Lush, Chief Executive of Imperial Health Charity, said: "As the dedicated charity for the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust hospitals, we are committed to supporting pioneering research that leads to real improvements in patient care through our annual research fellowships programme. "Dr Farren's study clearly shows that a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy can have profound and long-lasting impacts on women's mental health and we look forward to seeing how this important research can be translated into better care for patients and their families in the future."
Jane Brewin, Chief Executive of Tommy's comments, said: "For too long women have not received the care they need following a miscarriage and this research shows the scale of the problem. Miscarriage services need to be changed to ensure they are available to everyone, and women are followed up to assess their mental wellbeing with support being offered to those who need it, and advice is routinely given to prepare for a subsequent pregnancy."
Kate Rawson, an actor and playwright, experienced two miscarriages in 2014 and 2015, one at 8 weeks and one at 11 weeks. She has written a radio play about recurrent miscarriage called Little Blue Lines. Here she discusses her experience:
"After my first miscarriage I was numb. I did not know how to react or who to approach. I did not know if it was grief that I was feeling, or if that was even a valid response to have about losing something so 'small'. So I tried to believe reassuring words ('it's not your fault; you can try again; you've got time; it's just one of those things.')
The second time it happened I knew something was wrong immediately, just a faint pink patch in my pants, a slight cramping feeling. Then dread and anxiety at what was to come, and guilt at what I could have done to cause it; sadness for myself, but also my husband, my family, my friends who would have to do all those sad faces and texts and calls again. The physical miscarriage was a huge shock, one I was absolutely not prepared for and I will never forget it.
I tried to 'move on' as advised. 'Trying again' was full of anxiety that got worse when I fell pregnant for the third time. Happily that resulted in a healthy full term birth, but the first trimester was extremely stressful, for both myself and my husband. I struggled to keep perspective and flitted between wanting this baby more than anything else to wishing I would just bleed and get the awful thing over with and my life back.
It was only after my son was born I realized the enormity of what I had been through, and the need to process it -- there are support groups at my hospital now but there was nothing available to me at the time -- so I wrote about it."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200114224449.htm
When pregnant moms are stressed out, babies' brains suffer
65% of moms of fetuses with heart conditions are stressed, but so are 27% of future moms with uncomplicated pregnancies
January 13, 2020
Science Daily/Children's National Hospital
Knowing that your unborn fetus has congenital heart disease causes such pronounced maternal stress, anxiety and depression that these women's fetuses end up with impaired development in key brain regions before they are born, according to research published online Jan. 13, 2020, in JAMA Pediatrics.
While additional research is needed, the Children's National Hospital study authors say their unprecedented findings underscore the need for universal screening for psychological distress as a routine part of prenatal care and taking other steps to support stressed-out pregnant women and safeguard their newborns' developing brains.
"We were alarmed by the high percentage of pregnant women with a diagnosis of a major fetal heart problem who tested positive for stress, anxiety and depression," says Catherine Limperopoulos, Ph.D., director of the Center for the Developing Brain at Children's National and the study's corresponding author. "Equally concerning is how prevalent psychological distress is among pregnant women generally. We report for the first time that this challenging prenatal environment impairs regions of the fetal brain that play a major role in learning, memory, coordination, and social and behavioral development, making it all the more important for us to identify these women early during pregnancy to intervene," Limperopoulos adds.
Congenital heart disease (CHD), structural problems with the heart, is the most common birth defect.
Still, it remains unclear how exposure to maternal stress impacts brain development in fetuses with CHD.
The multidisciplinary study team enrolled 48 women whose unborn fetuses had been diagnosed with CHD and 92 healthy women with uncomplicated pregnancies. Using validated screening tools, they found:
65% of pregnant women expecting a baby with CHD tested positive for stress
27% of women with uncomplicated pregnancies tested positive for stress
44% of pregnant women expecting a baby with CHD tested positive for anxiety
26% of women with uncomplicated pregnancies tested positive for anxiety
29% of pregnant women expecting a baby with CHD tested positive for depression and
9% women with uncomplicated pregnancies tested positive for depression
All told, they performed 223 fetal magnetic resonance imaging sessions for these 140 fetuses between 21 and 40 weeks of gestation. They measured brain volume in cubic centimeters for the total brain as well as volumetric measurements for key regions such as the cerebrum, cerebellum, brainstem, and left and right hippocampus.
Maternal stress and anxiety in the second trimester were associated with smaller left hippocampi and smaller cerebellums only in pregnancies affected by fetal CHD. What's more, specific regions -- the hippocampus head and body and the left cerebellar lobe -- were more susceptible to stunted growth. The hippocampus is key to memory and learning, while the cerebellum controls motor coordination and plays a role in social and behavioral development.
The hippocampus is a brain structure that is known to be very sensitive to stress. The timing of the CHD diagnosis may have occurred at a particularly vulnerable time for the developing fetal cerebellum, which grows faster than any other brain structure in the second half of gestation, particularly in the third trimester.
"None of these women had been screened for prenatal depression or anxiety. None of them were taking medications. And none of them had received mental health interventions. In the group of women contending with fetal CHD, 81% had attended college and 75% had professional educations, so this does not appear to be an issue of insufficient resources," Limperopoulos adds. "It's critical that we routinely to do these screenings and provide pregnant women with access to interventions to lower their stress levels. Working with our community partners, Children's National is doing just that to help reduce toxic prenatal stress for both the health of the mother and for the future newborns. We hope this becomes standard practice elsewhere."
Adds Yao Wu, Ph.D., a research associate working with Limperopoulos at Children's National and the study's lead author: "Our next goal is exploring effective prenatal cognitive behavioral interventions to reduce psychological distress felt by pregnant women and improve neurodevelopment in babies with CHD."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200113111143.htm
Antibodies derived from mom's gut microbes
Research in mice shows antibodies derived from mom's gut microbes protect newborns from E. coli infection
Science Daily/January 8, 2020
Harvard Medical School
Newborn mice derive protective antibodies from their mothers' microbiota. Antibodies derived from mothers' microbiota ward off both localized and widespread systemic infections by the bacterium E. coli. Study points to the role of maternal microbes in offspring protection and neonatal immunity. Findings can inform development of microbe-based therapies against infectious diarrhea in infants.
Mother's milk has been long touted for its salutary effects on the newborn and its ability to shield infants from certain infections.
Now research from Harvard Medical School conducted in mice shows that at least part of its protective effects come from a surprising source: the microbes residing in maternal intestines.
The new study, published Jan. 8 in Nature, shows that antibodies made in response to one particular organism in the maternal gut are passed on to the offspring both via milk and through the placenta to protect newborn pups from infection by at least one disease-causing, and potentially lethal, microbe, E. coli.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence pointing to the potent role of the microbiota -- the trillions of microbes that dwell in the gut, skin, mouth and other parts of the bodies of mammals, including humans -- in disease and health.
But the new research goes a step further -- it specifically identifies maternal microbiota as source of newborn immunity. It further suggests that the intestinal microbiota could offer immune protection even when mothers have had no prior encounters with an infection that allows them to build and pass on protective antibodies to their offspring.
"Our results help explain why newborns are protected from certain disease-causing microbes despite their underdeveloped immune systems and lack of prior encounters with these microbes," said study senior investigator Dennis Kasper, professor of immunology in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School. "Moreover, they raise the possibility that mothers can confer immune protection to their offspring even to pathogens that they haven't themselves encountered in the past."
If affirmed through further studies, the findings could inform the design of microbial therapies against dangerous infections such as E. coli and other disease-causing organisms, the researchers said.
"Albeit preliminary, we are hopeful these insights could inform the development of vaccines derived from commensal microbial molecules as a way to prevent infectious diseases," said Kasper, who is also the William Ellery Channing Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Another therapeutic avenue could be the use of commensal microbes as probiotics that protect against diarrheal disease."
Infectious diarrhea -- most commonly due to E. coli or rotavirus -- is the leading cause of malnutrition and the second leading cause of death globally in children under age 5. It causes 1.7 billion infections and claims more than 520,000 lives a year worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
Without any prior exposure to microbes, a newborn's immune system is a blank slate. For the first three weeks, a newborn's immune protection is derived entirely from maternal antibodies passed onto the fetus during pregnancy via the placenta, during birth via the birth canal, and shortly after birth via breastfeeding.
In the current study, researchers worked with newborn mice genetically engineered to lack B cells -- the antibody-producing factories of the immune system. Some of the newborn mice were subsequently raised by mothers that were also born without antibody-making B cells, and therefore, lacked protective antibodies. The other newborn mice were raised by mothers that had normal immune systems.
Mice exposed to protective antibodies from their mothers were far more resistant to E. coli infection than mice that were not exposed to such antibodies. It was as if the pups repelled the pathogen, the researchers observed. Indeed, their intestines had 33 times fewer E. coli bacteria than newborn mice lacking maternal antibodies. By contrast, mice pups that were not exposed to protective antibodies developed disseminated E. coli disease.
The researchers were also able to pinpoint the specific organism responsible for inducing the formation of the protective antibodies -- a microbe called Pantoea, member of the Enterobacteriaceae bacterial family, which resides in the intestines of mice and other mammals, including humans.
Furthermore, the experiments showed that the antibodies enter both the intestines and bloodstream of newborns via the neonatal Fc receptor, a molecular channel on the placenta that helps ferry protective antibodies from the mother to the growing fetus. Thus far, the receptor has been known to transfer antibodies through the placenta. However, the experiments conducted in the new study show this receptor also absorbs antibodies derived from milk and ferries them from the intestines and into the bloodstream of the newborn mice, ensuring wider, systemic protection beyond the gut. Adult mice, in which this neonatal receptor loses its function with age, did not transfer protective antibodies from their gut to the bloodstream, the experiments showed.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200108131659.htm
Half of women with heart failure get the wrong treatment
January 6, 2020
Science Daily/The University of Bergen
More women than men die of heart failure. The reason is that only 50 per cent of the heart failure cases among women are caused by having a heart attack, which can be treated with modern methods.
For the other 50 per cent of women experiencing heart failure the cause is generally related to having untreated high blood pressure levels over time, which leads to progressive stiffening of the heart. There is no effective treatment for this kind of heart failure yet.
"Men and women have different biologies and this results in different types of the same heart diseases. It is about time to recognise these differences," says Professor Eva Gerdts, Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen.
"Another important point concerning how to avoid heart disease is to ask about what the national health service is doing on this issue. Heart disease remains among the most common cause of death and reduced quality of life in women. Medically speaking, we still do not know what the best treatment for heart- attack or -failure is in many women. It is an unacceptable situation," Gerdts claims.
Gerdts has recently published an invited review paper in Naturetogether with Professor Vera Regitz-Zagrosek ved Charité Universitätsmedizin.
The researchers have compared common risk factors for heart disease and how these affect men and women differently. They have, among other things, focused on the sex differences in the effect of obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Women gain more weight
According to The World Health Organization (WHO) 11 per cent women and 15 per cent men are obese (BMI over 30 kg/ m2) globally. In Norway one in five adults are obese.
"If we see this from a life span perspective, we can see that obesity increases with age, and that this trend is greater for women than men. Obesity increases the risk of having high blood pressure by a factor of three. This, in turn, increases the risk of heart disease," Gerdts points out.
According to Gerdts, obesity also increases the risk of diabetes 2. A woman with diabetes has a much higher relative risk of heart complications and death than a man.
"We know that women with diabetes 2 are usually obese and some of this fat is stored in the heart, which makes it more vulnerable for disease."
Oestrogen influence heart risk
Gerdts explains that many of the differences between woman and men when it comes to heart disease are connected to the sex hormone, oestrogen. The hormone prevents the formation of connective tissue in the heart, which makes it harder for the heart to pump. In men the effects are the opposite.
"We see that obese men store oestrogen in their fat cells in the abdomen, which has a bad effect on the heart."
After menopause, women lose the oestrogen advantage. Their arteries becomes stiffer and more vulnerable for disease. We see this in the fact that for persons under 60, high blood pressure is most common amongst men. For persons over 60, it is the opposite.
"We think that this is part of the explanation for why high blood pressure seems to indicate higher risk of heart disease amongst women."
Women smoke more
In addition, smoking is also a part of the risk scenario for women. During the past decades, more women have started smoking than men.
"Many women start smoking to reduce their appetite and to control their weight. However, this is not a good choice from a health perspective."
"For women, the effects of risk factors such as smoking, obesity and high blood pressure increase after menopause," says Eva Gerdts.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200106103444.htm
Moms' obesity in pregnancy is linked to lag in sons' development and IQ
December 23, 2019
Science Daily/Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
A mother's obesity in pregnancy can affect her child's development years down the road, according to researchers who found lagging motor skills in preschoolers and lower IQ in middle childhood for boys whose mothers were severely overweight while pregnant. A team of epidemiologists, nutritionists and environmental health researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the University of Texas at Austin and found that the differences are comparable to the impact of lead exposure in early childhood. The findings are published in BMC Pediatrics.
The researchers studied 368 mothers and their children, all from similar economic circumstances and neighborhoods, during pregnancy and when the children were 3 and 7 years of age. At age 3, the researchers measured the children's motor skills and found that maternal obesity during pregnancy was strongly associated with lower motor skills in boys. At age 7, they again measured the children and found that the boys whose mothers were overweight or obese in pregnancy had scores 5 or more points lower on full-scale IQ tests, compared to boys whose mothers had been at a normal weight. No effect was found in the girls.
"What's striking is, even using different age-appropriate developmental assessments, we found these associations in both early and middle childhood, meaning these effects persist over time," said Elizabeth Widen, assistant professor of nutritional sciences at UT Austin and a co-author. "These findings aren't meant to shame or scare anyone. We are just beginning to understand some of these interactions between mothers' weight and the health of their babies."
It is not altogether clear why obesity in pregnancy would affect a child later, though previous research has found links between a mother's diet and cognitive development, such as higher IQ scores in kids whose mothers have more of certain fatty acids found in fish. Dietary and behavioral differences may be driving factors, or fetal development may be affected by some of the things that tend to happen in the bodies of people with a lot of extra weight, such as inflammation, metabolic stress, hormonal disruptions and high amounts of insulin and glucose.
The researchers controlled for several factors in their analysis, including race and ethnicity, marital status, the mother's education and IQ, as well as whether the children were born prematurely or exposed to environmental toxic chemicals like air pollution. What the pregnant mothers ate or whether they breastfed were not included in the analysis.
The team also examined and accounted for the nurturing environment in a child's home, looking at how parents interacted with their children and if the child was provided with books and toys. A nurturing home environment was found to lessen the negative effects of obesity.
According to Widen and senior author Andrew Rundle, DrPH, associate professor of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School, while the results showed that the effect on IQ was smaller in nurturing home environments, it was still there.
This is not the first study to find that boys appear to be more vulnerable in utero. Earlier research found lower performance IQ in boys but not girls whose mothers were exposed to lead, and a 2019 study suggested boys whose moms had fluoride in pregnancy scored lower on an IQ assessment.
Because childhood IQ is a predictor of education level, socio-economic status and professional success later in life, researchers say there is potential for impacts to last into adulthood.
The research team advised women who are obese or overweight when they become pregnant to eat a well-balanced diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables, take a prenatal vitamin, stay active and make sure to get enough fatty acids such as the kind found in fish oil. Giving children a nurturing home environment also matters, as does seeing a doctor regularly, including during pregnancy to discuss weight gain. Working with your doctor and talking about what is appropriate for your circumstances are recommended.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191223122808.htm
Mothers' and babies' brains 'more in tune' when mother is happy
December 17, 2019
Science Daily/University of Cambridge
Mothers' and babies' brains can work together as a 'mega-network' by synchronising brain waves when they interact. The level of connectivity of the brain waves varies according to the mum's emotional state: when mothers express more positive emotions their brain becomes much more strongly connected with their baby's brain. This may help the baby to learn and its brain to develop.
The research, published in the journal NeuroImage, used a method called dual electroencephalograhy (EEG) to look at brain signals in both mums and babies while they were interacting with each other. They found that mums and babies tend to synchronise their brain waves -- an effect known as interpersonal neural connectivity -- particularly in the frequency of 6-9 hertz, the infant alpha range.
By looking at the qualities and structure of the interpersonal neural connectivity using a mathematical method of network analysis, the researchers could see how information flowed within each separate brain, and also how the two brains operated together as a network.
Mothers and babies tend to spend a lot of time together in a positive emotional state, in which their brains are very connected. The study found that positive interaction, with lots of eye contact, enhances the ability of mother and infant brains to operate as a single system. This promotes efficient sharing and flow of information between mother and infant.
"From our previous work, we know that when the neural connection between mothers and babies is strong, babies are more receptive and ready to learn from their mothers," said Dr Vicky Leong in the University of Cambridge's Department of Psychology, who led the study. "At this stage of life, the baby brain has the ability to change significantly, and these changes are driven by the baby's experiences. By using a positive emotional tone during social interactions, parents can connect better with their infants, and stimulate development of their baby's mental capacity."
The results also suggest that babies of depressed mothers may show less evidence of learning because of a weakened neural connection between mother and infant. Mothers who experience a persistently low or negative mental state due to clinical depression tend to have less interaction with their baby. Their speech is often flatter in tone, they make much less eye contact, and they are less likely to respond when their baby tries to get their attention.
"Our emotions literally change the way that our brains share information with others -- positive emotions help us to communicate in a much more efficient way," said Dr Leong. "Depression can have a powerfully negative effect on a parent's ability to establish connections with their baby. All the social cues that normally foster connection are less readily available to the child, so the child doesn't receive the optimal emotional input it needs to thrive."
Emotional communication between parents and their children is crucial during early life, yet little is known about its neural underpinnings. This is the first brain imaging study of two related individuals to investigate if and how babies' interpersonal neural connectivity with their mothers is affected by the emotional quality of their social interaction.
As a social species, humans share emotional states with others. This work shows how emotions change the connection between two individuals at a neural level. The researchers say that their findings apply to many other types of affiliative bond, including between couples, close friends, and siblings, where each person is highly attuned to the other. The strength of the effect is likely to depend on how well the two people know each other and the level of trust between them.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191217105210.htm
The effect of taking antidepressants during pregnancy
Early exposure to antidepressants changes sensory processing in the brain
December 16, 2019
Science Daily/Society for Neuroscience
Exposure to antidepressants during pregnancy and the first weeks of life can alter sensory processing well into adulthood, according to research in mice.
Physicians are increasingly prescribing a common antidepressant to their pregnant patients, even though the effect on the fetus isn't fully known. A working theory of depression implicates the neurotransmitter serotonin because many depressed patients experience relief when prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Whatever its role in depression, serotonin is critical for healthy brain development and function.
While previous research has shown changes in behavior and brain structure with prenatal and early life exposure to SSRIs, Rahn et al. explored changes in brain activity. After exposing mice to the SSRI fluoxetine during gestation and the first two weeks after birth, the team deployed optical imaging to examine the mouse brains exposed to fluoxetine and compare them to control mice. In the resting state, the brains of both sets of mice were nearly identical. When their front paws were stimulated, the fluoxetine-exposed mice displayed abnormal brain activity in sensory areas. The effect was observed during adulthood in mice, suggesting this developmental exposure to SSRIs causes long-term changes to sensory processing.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191216173658.htm