title: Prenatal stress and limbic-prefrontal white matter microstructure in children aged 6-9 years: a preliminary diffusion tensor imaging study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Maternal prenatal stress is associated with elevated risk of adverse behavioural outcomes in offspring. This association may involve developmental disruption to limbic-prefrontal white matter circuitry, of which the uncinate fasciculus is the major tract. One potential candidate for modulating brain development is maternal prenatal stress. We provide the first prospective study of prenatal stress and white matter microstructure in children.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 22 healthy children (mean age 7 years) of mothers recruited in pregnancy underwent diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging. We examined correlations between prenatal stressful life events and white matter microstructural organisation indices (fractional anisotropy (FA) and perpendicular diffusivity (Dperp)) of the uncinate fasciculus and a "control" tract.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Maternal prenatal stressful life events were correlated positively with right uncinate fasciculus FA, and negatively with right uncinate fasciculus Dperp in their child, with a similar trend with left uncinate fasciculus Dperp. Prenatal stress was not associated with control tract properties; sociodemographic/obstetric variables were not associated with FA/Dperp of either tract.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Variation in maternal prenatal stress may be associated with differences in the development of white matter within brain networks underlying child social behaviour.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Science, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry , London , UK.
authors.forename: Sagari
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.forename: Michael C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Craig
authors.forename: Flavio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dell'Acqua
authors.forename: Thomas G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: O'Connor
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Catani
authors.forename: Quinton
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Deeley
authors.forename: Vivette
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Glover
authors.forename: Declan G M
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Murphy
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008032:Limbic System / Q000473:pathology; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000473:pathology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000523:psychology*; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000473:pathology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*; D066127:White Matter / Q000473:pathology
keywords: DT-MRI; neuroimaging; prenatal stress; uncinate fasciculus; white matter