Prenatal exposure to maternal anxiety is associated with less developed smooth pursuit eye movements in six-month-old infants: An initial study.

Aims: There are an increasing number of reports suggesting an association between maternal anxiety experienced during pregnancy and adverse outcomes of the offspring. However, exploration of the biological changes in the brain that mediate that relationship has been hampered by the lack of appropriate biomarkers. This report represents an initial step exploring whether a potential infant biomarker, smooth pursuit eye movements, may be associated with prenatal exposure to maternal anxiety. Study Design: Blinded cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine. Data collected from July 2011 to May 2012. Methodology: Forty-three infants including 34 whose prenatal maternal anxiety status were identified (12 with a known maternal prenatal anxiety diagnosis and 22 without) had eye movements recorded during a smooth pursuit eye movement task at four and/or six months of age. Results: At 6 months of age, infants with prenatal exposure to maternal anxiety, compared to infants without such exposure, spent a higher percentage of time utilizing smooth pursuit (t=2.7, df=24, P=.013), had longer duration of smooth pursuit uninterrupted by saccades (t=2.5, df=24, P=.019), and had decreased frequency of forward saccades (t=3.8, df=24, P=.001). No differences between groups were identified at 4 months of age. Conclusion: Smooth pursuit abnormalities may, at six months of age, be a potential biomarker for prenatal maternal anxiety exposure.

Theory of mind development is impaired in 4-year-old children with prenatal exposure to maternal tobacco smoking.

Aims: Theory of Mind (ToM) is an important component of social cognition. Deficits in ToM are found in various neurodevelopmental disorders and social and environmental factors have been found to influence ToM development. Little previous research has focused on effects of exposure to toxins; this report examines the impact of tobacco. Place of Study: Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine, between April 2006 – August 2012. Methodology: 101 children, 18 with prenatal exposure to tobacco, underwent ToM testing at 40 (n=89) and 48 (n=77) months of age. Test questions received dichotomous pass/fail scores and percentage of correct responses was utilized as the primary dependent variable. Results: At 40 months of age children were rarely able to correctly answer false belief questions and there were no significant differences according to prenatal tobacco exposure. At 48 months of age, there was a significant effect of prenatal tobacco exposure with non-exposed 48-month-olds correctly answering 45±40.6% of content false belief questions correctly, compared to 13.9±25.3% for 48-month-olds with prenatal tobacco exposure (F=4.79, df= 1,73, p=.032). Conclusion: ToM abilities are rapidly developing between 40 and 48 months of age. Prenatal exposure to tobacco is associated with impairment at 48 but not 40 months of age. This finding supports consideration of nicotinic mechanisms as contributors to early development of social cognition.

Preschoolers of mothers with affective and anxiety disorders show impairments in cognitive inhibition during a chimeric animal stroop.

Aims: To determine whether maternal affective and anxiety disorders are associated with cognitive inhibitory deficits in four-year-old children utilizing a chimeric animal stroop task, a childhood adaptation of the traditional stroop task. Study Design: Blinded Cross-Sectional Study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine, data collected from June 2009 to October 2010. Methodology: Four-year-olds of mothers with (n=29) and without (n=31) a history of affective or anxiety disorders completed a chimeric animal version of the stroop task. Incongruent, neutral, and congruent stimuli were presented over three trial blocks. Mean reaction time and response accuracy were the primary dependent measures. Results: The increase in the number of incorrect responses to incongruent versus congruent or neutral stimuli was larger for offspring of a mother with a history of an affective or anxiety disorder than without (t=2.4, P=.02); there was no significant main effect of maternal psychiatric illness (F(1, 58)=0.9, P=.34) or a stimulus type by maternal illness (F(1 , 58)=1.1, P=.30) interaction on reaction time. Conclusion: The association between maternal affective and anxiety disorders and cognitive inhibitory deficit is already identifiable by four years of age.