Comments on: Second-generation addiction, autistic spectrum, bipolar, schizophrenia, and obesity as artifacts of stress-induced epigenetics?

By: sleeprunning

sleeprunning — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:42:13 +0000

Mixed Messages from Mom – Maternal Psychological Health Influences Fetal Development
Posted: 05 Dec 2011 04:00 AM PST
Pregnancy is far from a stress-free time of life. But, most mothers try their best to provide a healthy, happy placental home for nine months, knowing that anything she does to or for herself, she does to her growing fetus. The placental environment is sensitive to many foods, drinks, medications, and even activities, and the effects of many of these (think smoking and drinking) have long-term negative consequences. But, in addition to these external influences, internal factors, including psychological health and hormone levels, affect fetal development. A new study to be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science claims that, in fact, consistency of maternal mental health is more important in fetal outcomes than whether or not the mother is actually healthy.
The study, whose findings were published early through a press release by the Association for Psychological Science, examined how a mother’s mental state, specifically signs and symptoms of depression, influenced the development of babies, both before and after birth. Interestingly, the babies with the best developmental outcomes were those who grew in a consistent environment. That is, babies whose mothers were healthy both before and after birth and babies whose mothers were depressed both before and after birth had higher developmental scores than babies whose mothers went from healthy to depressed or depressed to healthy during or after birth.
Related studies by the same team of researchers revealed that anxiety during pregnancy, and its related fluctuations in hormones, predicts infant development and temperament. The higher the levels of cortisol, which indicate elevated levels of stress, at different points during pregnancy were significantly associated with negative reactivity and impaired adaptation to stress in infants. Maternal cortisol levels were also related to a more difficult temperament, behavioral and emotional problems, and delayed motor and cognitive development in infants. There is also evidence that cortisol levels during pregnancy result in differences in brain structures in infants.
So, what is a mom to do? Clearly, a lifetime of emotional and psychological connections to her baby begins in the womb, and unstable mental health places the child at risk for developmental, emotional, and cognitive impairment. But, so far, none of these studies have been able to prove if these connections are transient, persistent, or progressive. And, levels of stress and depression are only part of a myriad of conditions and environmental factors that influence development in offspring.
Throughout life, maternal-child interactions are dynamic and influenced by numerous internal and external factors. The current research underscores just how early these interactions start. And, it emphasizes that consistency is key. As the authors note, a cynical interpretation would be to let women who are depressed or anxious stay that way, in order to provide a consistent fetal environment. But, a more pragmatic approach would be to screen mothers-to-be before pregnancy for mental health conditions that may affect their babies later in life. And, monitoring of children at risk for psychological or developmental issues will lead to early intervention and treatment.
Maybe the bottom line is that fetuses should start preparing themselves early for a lifetime of mixed messages from mom.
References
Blair MM, Glynn LM, Sandman CA, & Davis EP (2011). Prenatal maternal anxiety and early childhood temperament. Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 14 (6), 644-51 PMID: 21790468
Buitelaar JK, Huizink AC, Mulder EJ, de Medina PG, & Visser GH (2003). Prenatal stress and cognitive development and temperament in infants. Neurobiology of aging, 24 Suppl 1 PMID: 12829109
Change in mother’s mental state can influence her baby’s development before and after birth. Press release Nov. 9, 2011.
Davis EP, Glynn LM, Schetter CD, Hobel C, Chicz-Demet A, & Sandman CA (2007). Prenatal exposure to maternal depression and cortisol influences infant temperament. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 46 (6), 737-46 PMID: 17513986
Davis EP, & Sandman CA (2010). The timing of prenatal exposure to maternal cortisol and psychosocial stress is associated with human infant cognitive development. Child development, 81 (1), 131-48 PMID: 20331658
de Weerth C, van Hees Y, & Buitelaar JK (2003). Prenatal maternal cortisol levels and infant behavior during the first 5 months. Early human development, 74 (2), 139-51 PMID: 14580753
Huizink AC, Robles de Medina PG, Mulder EJ, Visser GH, & Buitelaar JK (2003). Stress during pregnancy is associated with developmental outcome in infancy. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 44 (6), 810-8 PMID: 12959490
Sandman CA, Davis EP, Buss C, & Glynn LM (2011). Exposure to Prenatal Psychobiological Stress Exerts Programming Influences on the Mother and Her Fetus. Neuroendocrinology PMID: 21494029
Sandman CA, Davis EP, Buss C, & Glynn LM (2011). Prenatal programming of human neurological function. International journal of peptides, 2011 PMID: 21760821

By: sleeprunning

sleeprunning — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:51:36 +0000

Is this really epigenetics or hormonal changes in the parent/womb. So, for example, it appears that testostorone jolts in the womb, may lead to homosexuality in men/higher testostorone in life (sometimes measured by index finger length).

So if epigenetics is the changing of epigenetic structure, carried forward by environmental events, this just seems the driving of genetic expression, ie, production of proteins, by environmental events.

By: Sandra (a.k.a., "not Devin")

Sandra (a.k.a., "not Devin") — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:02:12 +0000

What about the positive effects of stress? Perhaps it promotes curiosity and competitive drive? I’m just sayin’ …

By: swivelchair

swivelchair — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:51:30 +0000

Thank you Neuroanthropology for the cite in your Wednesday Roundup!

http://neuroanthropology.net/2008/09/10/wednesday-round-up-28/

By: swivelchair

swivelchair — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:45:58 +0000

Thanks BB for your thoughtful comments, and your website, “The Banana Peel Project” is terrific — I’m going to spend some time there later.

Your point really cuts to the real issue: how to do nature/nurture studies at all?

Malaspina et al show that the second trimester is the time of most genomic plasticity (if that is part of epigenetics, or imprinting).

I think an interesting question is the larger social question:
Is there a societal impact for children who gestated during war?

20-30 years later, are these grow-up children, (who may have psychiatric illness) otherwise exceptionally creative or intelligent?

Is Israel home to many technological advances because of (or in spite of) the gestational influences?

Are there any other relatively closed populations where there has been a sudden burst of creativity which can be traced to a societal event?

Thanks again BB, Swivelchair

By: Brad Burge

Brad Burge — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:37:38 +0000

Fascinating post. These are some tremendously important questions. Anyone who still argues that there is any hard and fast line between genetics and culture quite clearly has their head buried in the sand. But how can scientists who study the complex interactions between environment, genetics, and behavior when there are so many confounding factors? Stressful perinatal events are extraordinarily likely to have effects far beyond the immediate gestational environment of the developing embryo/infant.

It is going to be vitally important for scientists and social scientists to convincingly demonstrate these links. The “well designed research studies” called for by Malaspina and colleagues are precisely what we need–but how does one design an empirical study that, to be slightly cheeky, controls for everything?

Thanks for this post.

By: Wednesday Round Up #28 « Neuroanthropology

Wednesday Round Up #28 « Neuroanthropology — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:28:02 +0000

[...] Correlates, Second-generation addiction, autistic spectrum, bipolar, schizophrenia, and obesity as artifacts of … Epigenetics explains everything!? Stress meets [...]