Szekely and Wazana - Vulnerability and resilience Flashcards
True of false: studies have found a correlation between psychological measures and cortisol levels
Little correlation, remains mostly unclear
Why is it unlikely for cortisol to be the mediating mechanism between prenatal maternal stress and anxiety/depression/fetal outcomes later in pregnancy?
Only weak association between maternal mood and cortisol level
How could stress lead to fetal programming if not by increasing maternal levels?
PRENATAL STRESS MAY CAUSE INCREASED TRANSPLACENTAL TRANSFER OF MATERNAL CORTISOL TO THE FETAL COMPARTMENT
What are two epigenetic mechanisms thought to be involved in prenatal stress?
Histone modifications
DNA methylation
What can be said about epigenetic age and prenatal stress?
Prenatal stress seems to be affected by epigenetic age
What is DNA methylation from prenatal stress known to be importantly modulating?
Early immune system development
What uterine process is known to be related to fetal epigenetic modification?
Prenatal intrauterine inflammation
What is infant laterality?
GREATER ACTIVATION IN THE LEFT HEMISPHERE RELATIVE TO THE RIGHT (LEFT FRONTAL EEG ASYMMETRY) IS RELATED TO APPROACH BEHAVIOR
GREATER ACTIVATION IN THE RIGHT HEMISPHERE RELATIVE TO THE LEFT (RIGHT FRONTAL EEG ASYMMETRY) IS ASSOCIATED WITH WITHDRAWAL BEHAVIOR
How do infant laterality and prenatal anxiety/depression relate?
prenatal anxiety/depression consistently associated with greater right frontal eeg asymmetry (associated with withdrawal behaviour)
What consistent finding about grey matter and maternal prenatal depression has been made?
Prenatal maternal depression ->lower cortical thickness in right frontal regions ->mediate relationship between maternal prenatal depression and child concurrent externalizing behaviours + depression symptoms in adolescence
How do prenatal maternal stress and infant white matter relate?
Decreased WM integrity in infant
What has functional imaging revealed about the impact of prenatal stress on neurocircuitry?
AN INVERSE LIMBIC TO PREFRONTAL PATTERN OF CONNECTIVITY IS CONSISTENT WITH MORE MATURE (I.E., ADULT-LIKE) NEUROCIRCUITRY PATTERN AND HAS ALSO BEEN OBSERVED IN CHILDREN FOLLOWING EARLY LIFE STRESS EXPOSURE
Why is the fetal brain so prone to be affected by glucocorticoid?
Abundance of glucocorticoid receptors in the brain
True or false: cortisol is mostly harmful to the fetus.
False: essential to brain development
What is an existing marker for accelerated neural maturation?
Prenatal inflammatory marker
