Antenatal maternal intimate partner violence exposure is associated with sex-specific alterations in brain structure among young infants: Evidence from a South African birth cohort

Lucy V Hiscox, Graeme Fairchild, Kirsten A Donald, Nynke A Groenewold, Nastassja Koen, Annerine Roos, Katherine L Narr, Marina Lawrence, Nadia Hoffman, Catherine J Wedderburn, Whitney Barnett, Heather J Zar, Dan J Stein, Sarah Halligan

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6 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Maternal psychological distress during pregnancy has been linked to adverse outcomes in children with evidence of sex-specific effects on brain development. Here, we investigated whether in utero exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV), a particularly severe maternal stressor, is associated with brain structure in young infants from a South African birth cohort. Exposure to IPV during pregnancy was measured in 143 mothers at 28–32 weeks’ gestation and infants underwent structural and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (mean age 3 weeks). Subcortical volumetric estimates were compared between IPV-exposed (n = 63; 52% female) and unexposed infants (n = 80; 48% female), with white matter microstructure also examined in a subsample (IPV-exposed, n = 28, 54% female; unexposed infants, n = 42, 40% female). In confound adjusted analyses, maternal IPV exposure was associated with sexually dimorphic effects in brain volumes: IPV exposure predicted a larger caudate nucleus among males but not females, and smaller amygdala among females but not males. Diffusivity alterations within white matter tracts of interest were evident in males, but not females exposed to IPV. Results were robust to the removal of mother-infant pairs with pregnancy complications. Further research is required to understand how these early alterations are linked to the sex bias in neuropsychiatric outcomes later observed in IPV-exposed children.

Original languageEnglish
Article number101210
JournalDevelopmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Volume60
Early online date6 Feb 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Apr 2023

Funding

The present analyses were funded by the UK Medical Research Council (grant MR/T002816/1 ). The Drakenstein Child Health Study was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP 1017641 ). Additional support for KAD, HJZ and DJS is from the South African Medical Research Council (SA MRC) and this work was partly funded by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Keywords

  • antenatal stress
  • intimate partner violence
  • brain imaging
  • LMIC
  • trauma
  • neonate

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