How stress can influence brain adaptations to motherhood

Kim, Pilyoung

doi:10.1016/j.yfrne.2020.100875

Cited by 45 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 311 publications

(415 reference statements)

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“…Moreover, these stressrelated material immunologic alterations appear to impact fetal tissue development and immune regulation [53,54] in ways that can potentially shape neonatal development. Altogether, these findings align with recent research highlighting women's neurobiological plasticity during pregnancy and the potential for biological embedding of stress during this time, for the mother herself, as well as for her baby [76]. These findings revealed an intriguing contrast between two macrophage-associated phenotypes with potential implications for the discovery of novel diagnostic biomarkers, experimental paradigms, and treatment approaches [77].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Adversity in early life and pregnancy are immunologically distinct from total life adversity: macrophage-associated phenotypes in women exposed to interpersonal violence

et al. 2021

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Early childhood and pregnancy are two sensitive periods of heightened immune plasticity, when exposure to adversity may disproportionately increase health risks. However, we need deeper phenotyping to disentangle the impact of adversity during sensitive periods from that across the total lifespan. This study examined whether retrospective reports of adversity during childhood or pregnancy were associated with inflammatory imbalance, in an ethnically diverse cohort of 53 low-income women seeking family-based trauma treatment following exposure to interpersonal violence. Structured interviews assessed early life adversity (trauma exposure ≤ age 5), pregnancy adversity, and total lifetime adversity. Blood serum was assayed for pro-inflammatory (TNF-a, IL-1ß, IL-6, and CRP) and anti-inflammatory (IL-1RA, IL-4, and IL-10) cytokines. CD14+ monocytes were isolated in a subsample (n = 42) and gene expression assayed by RNA sequencing (Illumina HiSeq 4000; TruSeq cDNA library). The primary outcome was a macrophage-associated M1/M2 gene expression phenotype. To evaluate sensitivity and specificity, we contrasted M1/M2 gene expression with a second, clinically-validated macrophage-associated immunosuppressive phenotype (endotoxin tolerance) and with pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokine levels. Adjusting for demographics, socioeconomic status, and psychopathology, higher adversity in early life (ß = .337, p = 0.029) and pregnancy (ß = .332, p = 0.032) were each associated with higher M1/M2 gene expression, whereas higher lifetime adversity (ß = −.341, p = 0.031) was associated with lower immunosuppressive gene expression. Adversity during sensitive periods was uniquely associated with M1/M2 imbalance, among low-income women with interpersonal violence exposure. Given that M1/M2 imbalance is found in sepsis, severe COVID-19 and myriad chronic diseases, these findings implicate novel immune mechanisms underlying the impact of adversity on health.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Adversity in early life and pregnancy are immunologically distinct from total life adversity: macrophage-associated phenotypes in women exposed to interpersonal violence

et al. 2021

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“…We thus cannot exclude with certainty a partial contribution of perinatal sleep deprivation to the observed GM changes. Stress, either arising from a challenging perinatal environment or from complications during gestation or childbirth, can also influence how women adjust to motherhood ( 65 ). Indeed, functional MRI studies find associations between high parenting stress and mothers' brain responses to their infants ( 66 ).…”

Section: Which Are the Mediating Factors?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing the Brain Structural Adaptations Across the Motherhood Transition

Martínez‐García

Paternina-Die

Desco

et al. 2021

Front. Glob. Womens Health

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Women that become mothers face notable physiological adaptations during this life-period. Neuroimaging studies of the last decade have provided grounded evidence that women's brains structurally change across the transition into motherhood. The characterization of this brain remodeling is currently in its early years of research. The current article reviews this scientific field by focusing on our longitudinal (pre-to-post pregnancy) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) studies in first-time parents and other longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of parents. We present the questions that are currently being answered by the parental brain literature and point out those that have not yet been explored. We also highlight potential confounding variables that need to be considered when analyzing and interpreting brain changes observed during motherhood.

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“…Thirdly, key epigenetic studies in animal models originate from or directly cut across neuroscience research which gravitate around topics of trauma, stress and their potential transmission across generations (which still remains a controversial argument) ( Weaver et al, 2002 , 2004 ; McGowan et al, 2011 ; Dias and Ressler, 2014 ). Since the late 1990s neuroscientists and molecular biologists have been fascinated with the brain’s capacity to be physically shaped by its social and material environment, particularly the maternal environment ( Kim, 2021 ), especially during the earliest years of life ( Francis et al, 1999 ; Coda and Gräff, 2020 ). During this time, the argument goes, neural cells are rapidly dividing as the body grows and thus the brain is perceivably more vulnerable, or in other words, more plastic ( Fagiolini et al, 2009 ; Szyf, 2009 ).…”

Section: Neuroepigenetics: Neurobiological Change and Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Beneath the Skull: Agency, Trauma and Persisting Stereotypes in Neuroepigenetics

Lawson-Boyd

Meloni

2021

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Epigenetics stands in a complex relationship to issues of sex and gender. As a scientific field, it has been heavily criticized for disproportionately targeting the maternal body and reproducing deterministic views of biological sex (Kenney and Müller, 2017; Lappé, 2018; Richardson et al., 2014). And yet, it also represents the culmination of a long tradition of engaging with developmental biology as a feminist cause, because of the dispersal of the supposed ‘master code’ of DNA among wider cellular, organismic and ecological contexts (Keller, 1988). In this paper, we explore a number of tensions at the intersection of sex, gender and trauma that are playing out in the emerging area of neuroepigenetics - a relatively new subfield of epigenetics specifically interested in environment-brain relations through epigenetic modifications in neurons. Using qualitative interviews with leading scientists, we explore how trauma is conceptualized in neuroepigenetics, paying attention to its gendered dimensions. We address a number of concerns raised by feminist STS researchers in regard to epigenetics, and illustrate why we believe close engagement with neuroepigenetic claims, and neuroepigenetic researchers themselves, is a crucial step for social scientists interested in questions of embodiment and trauma. We argue this for three reasons: (1) Neuroepigenetic studies are recognizing the agential capacities of biological materials such as genes, neurotransmitters and methyl groups, and how they influence memory formation; (2) Neuroepigenetic conceptions of trauma are yet to be robustly coupled with social and anthropological theories of violence (Eliot, 2021; Nelson, 2021; Walby, 2013); (3) In spite of the gendered assumptions we find in neuroepigenetics, there are fruitful spaces – through collaboration – to be conceptualizing gender beyond culture-biology and nature-nurture binaries (Lock and Nguyen, 2010). To borrow Gravlee’s (2009: 51) phrase, we find reason for social scientists to consider how gender is not only constructed, but how it may “become biology” via epigenetic and other biological pathways. Ultimately, we argue that a robust epigenetic methodology is one which values the integrity of expertise outside its own field, and can have an open, not empty mind to cross-disciplinary dialogue.

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How stress can influence brain adaptations to motherhood

Cited by 45 publications

References 311 publications

Adversity in early life and pregnancy are immunologically distinct from total life adversity: macrophage-associated phenotypes in women exposed to interpersonal violence

Adversity in early life and pregnancy are immunologically distinct from total life adversity: macrophage-associated phenotypes in women exposed to interpersonal violence

Characterizing the Brain Structural Adaptations Across the Motherhood Transition

Gender Beneath the Skull: Agency, Trauma and Persisting Stereotypes in Neuroepigenetics

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