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Référence bibliographique [22503]
Lei, Cao-Lei, Yogendran, Sandra, Dufoix, Romane, Elgbeili, Guillaume, Laplante, David P et King, Suzanne. 2021. «Prenatal Maternal Stress from a Natural Disaster and Hippocampal Volumes: Gene-by-Environment Interactions in Young Adolescents From Project Ice Storm ». Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, vol. 15, p. 1-15.
Fiche synthèse
1. Objectifs
Intentions :
«The main objective of this study was to test whether children’s genotype would moderate the effects of maternal stress derived from 1998 Quebec ice storm during pregnancy on their hippocampal volume, thereby resulting in differential effects of PNMS [prenatal maternal stress] on brain structure.» (p. 12)
2. Méthode
Échantillon/Matériau :
«In this study, 53 children who were in utero during the ice storm, or were conceived within 3 months of the ice storm, were assessed at the age of 11 1/2 years. Among the 53 children, 15 (28.3%) had been in their first, 14 (26.4%) in their second, and 10 (18.9%) in their third trimester on January 9, 1998 (the peak of the ice storm). The remaining 14 (26.4%) children were conceived within 3 months of the storm; they were also considered as “exposed” because maternal stress hormones could still be elevated within 3 months of a major stressor. The participants included 27 boys and 26 girls for whom both brain and genotype data were available.» (p. 3)
Instruments :
Questionnaire
Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique
3. Résumé
Results of this study show that «higher maternal objective hardship was associated with larger, not smaller, right hippocampal volume in girls. Therefore, it seems that different types of stressors during pregnancy could result in mixed findings, at least when not taking genotype into account.» (p. 12) In addition, «results would differ between males and females and indicate sex differences in brain development that are particularly prevalent at the onset of puberty. Our finding was supported by Jahnke et al. (2021) in which maternal stress during pregnancy was reported to influence the functioning of [the protein] HSD11B2 in placenta in a sex-specific manner, suggesting that maternal chronic stress may exhaust HSD11B2’s protective mechanism, exposing the newborn to high amounts of maternal cortisol, which could alter the fetal HPA [hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal] axis and influence long-term neurobehavioral development.» (p. 13)