Prenatal stress and its association with amygdala-related structural covariance patterns in youth
Background: Prenatal stress influences brain development and mood disorder vulnerability. Brain structural covariance network (SCN) properties based on inter-regional volumetric correlations may reflect developmentally-mediated shared plasticity among regions. Childhood trauma is associated with amygdala-centric SCN reorganization patterns, however, the impact of prenatal stress on SCN properties remains unknown.
Methods: The study included participants from the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC) with archival prenatal stress data and structural MRI acquired in young adulthood (age 23-24). SCNs were constructed based on Freesurfer-extracted volumes of 7 subcortical and 34 cortical regions.