BACKGROUND Childhood maltreatment (CM) confers deleterious long-term consequences, and growing evidence suggests some of these effects may be transmitted across generations. We examined the intergenerational effect of maternal CM exposure on child brain structure and also addressed the hypothesis that this effect may start during the child's intrauterine period of life. METHODS A prospective longitudinal study was conducted in a clinical convenience sample of 80 mother-child dyads. Maternal CM exposure was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Structural magnetic resonance imaging was employed to characterize newborn global and regional brain (tissue) volumes near the time of birth. RESULTS CM exposure was reported by 35% of the women. Maternal CM exposure was associated with lower child intracranial volume (F1,70 = 6.84, p = .011), which was primarily due to a global difference in cortical gray matter (F1,70 = 9.10, p = .004). The effect was independent of potential confounding variables, including maternal socioeconomic status, obstetric complications, obesity, recent interpersonal violence, pre- and early postpartum stress, gestational age at birth, infant sex, and postnatal age at magnetic resonance imaging scan. The observed group difference between offspring of CM-exposed mothers versus nonexposed mothers was 6%. CONCLUSIONS These findings represent the first report to date associating maternal CM exposure with variation in newborn brain structure. These observations support our hypothesis of intergenerational transmission of the effects of maternal CM exposure on child brain development and suggest this effect may originate during the child's intrauterine period of life, which may have downstream neurodevelopmental consequences.

中文翻译：

---

母亲遭受童年虐待对新生儿脑解剖学的代际影响

背景 童年虐待 (CM) 会带来有害的长期后果，越来越多的证据表明其中一些影响可能会跨代传递。我们检查了母亲 CM 暴露对儿童大脑结构的代际影响，并解决了这种影响可能在儿童宫内时期开始的假设。方法 在 80 名母子二人的临床便利样本中进行了一项前瞻性纵向研究。使用童年创伤问卷评估母体 CM 暴露。采用结构磁共振成像来表征新生儿出生时附近的整体和区域脑（组织）体积。结果 35% 的女性报告了 CM 暴露。母亲 CM 暴露与较低的儿童颅内容积有关 (F1,70 = 6.84, p = . 011），这主要是由于皮质灰质的全局差异（F1,70 = 9.10，p = .004）。这种影响与潜在的混杂变量无关，包括母亲的社会经济地位、产科并发症、肥胖、近期的人际暴力、产前和产后早期的压力、出生时的胎龄、婴儿性别和磁共振成像扫描的出生后年龄。CM 暴露母亲与未暴露母亲的后代之间观察到的组差异为 6%。结论 这些发现代表了迄今为止第一份将母亲 CM 暴露与新生儿大脑结构变化联系起来的报告。这些观察结果支持我们的假设，即母亲接触 CM 对儿童大脑发育影响的代际传递，并表明这种影响可能起源于儿童时期