Maternal Obesity Affects Newborn Brain Wiring
Maternal obesity is linked to altered functional connectivity in the brains of newborn infants across networks regulating behavior, taste, reward, and movement.
Source
Maternal Adiposity Influences Neonatal Brain Functional Connectivity
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cohort — Neonatal rs-fMRI at ~2 weeks; mothers split by early-pregnancy BMI
- N
- N=38 · 23 normal-BMI and 15 high-BMI mothers; 46 women originally enrolled
- Population
- Full-term infants scanned at about two weeks of age
- Outcome
- Neonatal functional connectivity differences associated with maternal early-pregnancy adiposity
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Maternal Obesity Affects Newborn Brain Wiring
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38 full-term infants
In this study, leveraging resting-state fMRI scans () on 38 full-term neonates with maternal adiposity measures [i.e., body-mass-index (BMI) and body-fat-mass (BFM) percentages], we aimed to systematically examine whole-brain functional connectivity patterns to unveil the full spectrum of impact of maternal adiposity on the offspring’s brain.
2 weeks of age
At ∼2 weeks of age, MRI examination of the brain was conducted in the Department of Radiology at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
What they did
Researchers performed resting-state functional MRI scans on 38 full-term infants at around 2 weeks of age. The infants were divided based on their mothers' early pregnancy weight: 23 had mothers with normal body mass index, and 15 had mothers with high body mass index. The researchers used a specialized brain atlas to partition the infant brains into 223 distinct regions to evaluate localized and global functional connectivity patterns.
What they found
The study revealed significant functional connectivity alterations in infants born to mothers with high body mass index across four functional domains. Specifically, 17 distinct neural pathways showed altered connections, with 14 of these showing stronger, hyper-connected patterns in the high maternal body mass index group. These altered connections were particularly concentrated in brain regions responsible for cognitive control, reward processing, sensory cue processing, and motor control.
The limits
What it doesn't show
This study cannot prove that maternal adiposity directly causes brain differences, as it is a correlational design that cannot rule out other genetic or postnatal factors. Additionally, the small sample size of 38 infants limits the ability to detect more widespread or subtle differences in brain wiring. Lastly, the study lacks long-term behavioral data, so it remains unclear how these early functional brain changes translate to the child's actual cognitive or eating behaviors as they grow.
Key terms
- Maternal Adiposity
- The amount of body fat carried by a mother.
- Functional Connectivity
- The synchronized activity or communication between different, spatially separated regions of the brain.
- Resting-state fMRI
- A functional neuroimaging method used to evaluate brain activity when a subject is not performing a specific task.
- Seed Region
- A predefined area of the brain used as a starting point to analyze functional connections with the rest of the brain.
- Hyper-connectivity
- An abnormally high level of functional connection or communication synchronization between brain regions.
- Global Degree Centrality
- A graph theory metric representing how highly connected a specific brain region is to all other regions in the overall network.
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What was the main objective of this resting-state fMRI study?
Common questions
Why study the brains of neonates instead of older children?
Studying neonates at around 2 weeks of age minimizes the influence of postnatal environmental factors, like diet and parenting, allowing researchers to better observe the potential in utero effects of maternal adiposity.
What are the four functional domains affected by maternal obesity in this study?
The domains are sensory cue processing, reward processing, cognitive control, and motor control, which together influence eating behaviors.
How was maternal adiposity measured?
It was assessed using both pre-pregnancy body mass index and body fat mass percentages measured during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.
Did gestational weight gain influence the results?
Yes, gestational weight gain showed widespread relationships with infant brain connectivity, though it was highly correlated with the mother's pre-pregnancy body mass index.
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