tribute to predicting maternal mental health status.
The passenger in the womb – maternal distress and offspring development
In this context, it is necessary to identify key early-life epigenetic signatures in order to predict children’ s cognitive and psycho-emotional development. Taking advantage of a populationbased longitudinal study in Uppsala which includes extensive phenotyping of mothers and infants, together with a biobanking program, will help to identify novel high-quality umbilical cord blood and salivary epigenetic biomarkers that are associated with maternal stress. Additionally, this might help to predict the risk for internalizing problems after birth, to replicate and validate the above epigenetic markers and to take perinatal factors( i. e. maternal depression and stressful life events during pregnancy, use of antidepressants, maternal smoking) and early-life factors into account. To put it in a nutshell, in Tübingen, there will be special emphasis on characterizing infant development according to developmental‘ milestones’ via a milestone diary to further infer associations between maternal and infant well-being / development and motherchild bonding. These relationships are essential for getting a deeper understanding of the origins and risk factors of developmental problems that later may lead to the development of various psychological disorders. In our fourth project, we will investigate child development using milestones and standardized tests as well as investigate mother-child bonding and social interaction.
Pregnancy as a vulnerable period influences not only the mother but has long lasting effects on the baby with growing evidence showing that the origins of structural alterations, characterizing mental and neurodevelopmental disorders may date back to the early intrauterine period. In our working group, we will therefore investigate the impact of sex hormones and pregnancy on socio-cognitive processes, brain structure and function. Women will undergo an fMRI emotion regulation task, structural and resting state measures as well as psychological and physiological measures and fMEG measurements. The measurements are planned to start around the 21st- 23rd week of pregnancy and last until 18 months after the birth of their child.
We would like to thank the Center for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen( CIN), for funding this Mini Research Training Group( DFG EXC 307).
Image sources were open source or belong to the author, unless otherwise noted.
Elisa Rehbein is a PhD student of the Centre of Integrative Neuroscience( CIN) in the working group of Prof. Birgit Derntl in Tübingen.
Ilena Bauer is a PhD student of the Graduate Training Center of Neuroscience. She is doing her PhD in the working group of Prof. Hubert Preißl at the fMEG Center in Tübingen.
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