Journal Article

Prenatal neural origins of infant motor development: Associations between fetal brain and infant motor development

Hect, Jasmine, Stacks, Ann M., Wong, Kristyn, Thomason, Moriah E., Manning, Janessa H., Boeve, Jordan L., Hernandez-Andrade, Edgar, Waller, Rebecca, Hassan, Sonia S., van den Heuvel, Marion I., Beeghly, Marjorie, Romero, Roberto

2018

Overview

Functional circuits of the human brain emerge and change dramatically over the second half of gestation. It is possible that variation in neural functional system connectivity in utero predicts individual differences in infant behavioral development, but this possibility has yet to be examined. The current study examines the association between fetal sensorimotor brain system functional connectivity and infant postnatal motor ability. Resting-state functional connectivity data was obtained in 96 healthy human fetuses during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Infant motor ability was measured 7 months after birth using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Increased connectivity between the emerging motor network and regions of the prefrontal cortex, temporal lobes, posterior cingulate, and supplementary motor regions was observed in infants that showed more mature motor functions. In addition, females demonstrated stronger fetal-brain to infant-behavior associations. These observations extend prior longitudinal research back into prenatal brain development and raise exciting new ideas about the advent of risk and the ontogeny of early sex differences.

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Subject: Babies / Behavior / Brain / Brain - embryology / Brain - physiopathology / Brain Mapping / Brain research / Child Development / Circuits / Cortex / Female / Females / Fetuses / Flexibility / Functional connectivity / Functional morphology / Gender differences / Gestation / Gyrus Cinguli - embryology / Gyrus Cinguli - physiopathology / Humans / Individual differences / Infant / Infant, Newborn / Infants / Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Male / Males / Motor ability / Motor Cortex - embryology / Motor Cortex - physiopathology / Motor development / Nerve Net - embryology / Nerve Net - physiopathology / Neural networks / Neural Pathways - embryology / Neural Pathways - physiopathology / Newborn babies / NMR / Nuclear magnetic resonance / Ontogeny / Postpartum period / Prefrontal cortex / Prefrontal Cortex - embryology / Prefrontal Cortex - physiopathology / Pregnancy / Pregnancy Trimester, Second / Pregnancy Trimester, Third / Prenatal care / Psychomotor Disorders - embryology / Psychomotor Disorders - physiopathology / Reference Values / Regions / Resting / Sensorimotor Cortex - embryology / Sensorimotor Cortex - physiopathology / Sensorimotor system / Sex differences / Sex Factors / Social development / Special Issue Articles / Temporal lobe / Temporal Lobe - embryology / Temporal Lobe - physiopathology / Temporal lobes