February 1, 2017
Early predictors of anxiety and depression may be evident in the brain even at birth, suggests a study published in the February 2017 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP). Analyzing brain scans of newborns, the researchers found that the strength and pattern of connections between the amygdala and certain brain regions predicted the likelihood of the babies developing greater internalizing symptoms like sadness, excessive shyness, nervousness, or separation anxiety by age two. Such symptoms have been linked to clinical depression and anxiety disorders in older children and adults.
“The fact that we could see these connectivity patterns in the brain at birth helps answer a critical question about whether they could be responsible for early symptoms linked to depression and anxiety or whether these symptoms themselves lead to changes in the brain,” said Cynthia Rogers, MD, an assistant professor of child psychiatry. “We have found that already at birth, brain connections may be responsible for the development of problems later in life.”
Initially, Dr. Rogers and her team set out to identify differences in functional brain connectivity — the coordination of activity across different parts of the brain — between babies born prematurely and others born at full term. They conducted functional MRI scans in 65 full-term newborns and 57 premature infants born at least ten weeks early. The latter were scanned on or near their due dates.
The researchers looked for differences in the connectivity patterns across various regions of the brain hoping to find evidence to explain why premature babies face a greater risk of developing psychiatric problems — including depression and anxiety — later in life. In particular, the team focused on how a structure involved in the processing of emotions, called the amygdala, connects with other brain regions.
Read more at ScienceDaily.com
