Excess weight among pregnant women may interfere with child's developing
brain

Date:
August 11, 2020
Source:
NYU Langone Health / NYU School of Medicine
Summary:
Obesity in expectant mothers may hinder the development of the
babies' brains as early as the second trimester, a new study finds.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Obesity in expectant mothers may hinder the development of the babies'
brains as early as the second trimester, a new study finds.


==========================================================================
Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the investigation
linked high body mass index (BMI), an indicator of obesity, to changes
in two brain areas, the prefrontal cortex and anterior insula. These
regions play a key role in decision-making and behavior, with disruptions having previously been linked to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, and overeating.

In their new study, publishing online August 11 in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, the investigators examined 197 groups of metabolically active nerve cells in the fetal brain. Using millions of computations, the study authors divided the groups into 16 meaningful
subgroups based on over 19,000 possible connections between the groups of neurons. They found only two areas of the brain where their connections
to each other were statistically strongly linked to the mother's BMI.

"Our findings affirm that a mother's obesity may play a role in fetal
brain development, which might explain some of the cognitive and metabolic health concerns seen in children born to mothers with higher BMI," says
Moriah Thomason, PhD, the Barakett Associate Professor in the Department
of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU Langone Health.

As obesity rates continue to soar in the United States, it is more
important than ever to understand how the condition may impact early
brain development, says Thomason, who is also an associate professor in
the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone.

Previous studies showing an association between obesity and brain
development had mostly looked at cognitive function in children after
birth. The new investigation is believed to be the first to measure
changes in fetal brain activity in the womb, and as early as six months
into pregnancy.

Thomason says this approach was designed to eliminate the potential
influence of breast feeding and other environmental factors occurring
after birth and to examine the earliest origins of negative effects of
maternal BMI on the developing child's brain.

For the investigation, the research team recruited 109 women with BMIs
ranging from 25 to 47. (According to the National Institutes of Health,
women are considered "overweight" if they have a BMI of 25 or higher and
are "obese" if their BMI is 30 and higher.) The women were all between
six and nine months' pregnant.

The research team used MRI imaging to measure fetal brain activity
and map patterns of communication between large numbers of brain cells clustered together in different regions of the brain. Then, they compared
the study participants to identify differences in how groups of neurons communicate with each other based on BMI.

The investigators caution that their study was not designed to draw a
direct line between the differences they found and ultimate cognitive
or behavioral problems in children. The study only looked at fetal brain activity. But, Thomason says, they now plan to follow the participants' children over time to determine whether the brain activity changes lead
to ADHD, behavioral issues, and other health risks.

Funding for the study was provided by National Institutes of Health
grants R01 MH110793, R34 DA050287, R01 MH122447, and R21 ES026022.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by NYU_Langone_Health_/_NYU_School_of_Medicine. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Megan E. Norr, Jasmine L. Hect, Carly J. Lenniger, Martijn Van den
Heuvel, Moriah E. Thomason. An examination of maternal prenatal
BMI and human fetal brain development. Journal of Child Psychology
and Psychiatry, 2020; DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.13301 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200811120149.htm

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