Maternal depression during pregnancy is associated with elevated risk of anxiety and depression in offspring, but the mechanisms are incompletely understood. Here we conducted a neuroimaging follow-up of a prenatal birth cohort from the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (n = 131; 53% women, age 23-24) to test whether deviations from age-normative structural brain development in young adulthood may partially underlie this link. Structural brain age was calculated based on previously published neuroanatomical age prediction models using cortical thickness maps from healthy controls aged 6-89. Brain age gap was computed as the difference between chronological and structural brain age. Participants also completed self-report measures of anxiety and mood dysregulation. Further, mothers of a subset of participants (n = 103, 54% women) answered a self-report questionnaire in 1990-1992 about depressive symptoms during pregnancy. Higher exposure to maternal depressive symptoms in utero showed a linear relationship with elevated brain age gap, which showed a quadratic relationship with anxiety and mood dysregulation in the young adult offspring. Our findings suggest that exposure to maternal depressive symptoms in utero may be associated with accelerated brain maturation and that deviations from age-normative structural brain development in either direction predict more anxiety and dysregulated mood in young adulthood.

中文翻译：

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年轻成年后代在怀孕期间和脑龄期间的母体抑郁症状：来自产前出生队列的结果。

母亲怀孕期间的抑郁症与后代焦虑和抑郁的风险升高有关，但其机制尚不完全清楚。在这里，我们对欧洲妊娠和儿童纵向研究（n = 131；53% 的女性，23-24 岁）的产前出生队列进行了神经影像学随访，以测试是否偏离了年轻成年期的年龄规范结构大脑发育可能部分构成此链接的基础。结构脑年龄是根据先前发表的神经解剖年龄预测模型计算的，使用来自 6-89 岁健康对照的皮质厚度图。脑年龄差距被计算为按时间顺序和结构脑年龄之间的差异。参与者还完成了焦虑和情绪失调的自我报告措施。此外，一部分参与者的母亲（n = 103，54% 的女性）在 1990-1992 年间回答了一份关于怀孕期间抑郁症状的自我报告问卷。母亲在子宫内更多地暴露于抑郁症状与脑年龄差距扩大呈线性关系，这与年轻成年后代的焦虑和情绪失调呈二次关系。我们的研究结果表明，在子宫内暴露于母亲的抑郁症状可能与大脑成熟加速有关，并且任何一个方向与年龄规范的大脑结构发育的偏差都预示着年轻时更多的焦虑和情绪失调。这表明与年轻成年后代的焦虑和情绪失调呈二次关系。我们的研究结果表明，在子宫内暴露于母亲的抑郁症状可能与大脑成熟加速有关，并且任何一个方向与年龄规范的大脑结构发育的偏差都预示着年轻时更多的焦虑和情绪失调。这表明与年轻成年后代的焦虑和情绪失调呈二次关系。我们的研究结果表明，在子宫内暴露于母亲的抑郁症状可能与大脑成熟加速有关，并且任何一个方向与年龄规范的大脑结构发育的偏差都预示着年轻时更多的焦虑和情绪失调。