The impact of the early life maternal exposure to adversities on the offspring brain development

Abstract

Some studies show that maternal exposure to adverse events in childhood is associated with a lower intracranial volume of offspring at birth, which can lead to behavioral, cognitive and emotional changes in childhood. The main objective of this project is to assess a possible association between exposure to maternal traumatic events in childhood and intracranial volume and head circumference of the offspring. Two groups of pregnant women and their professionals, users of the Unified Health System, will be evaluated: a group of pregnant women exposed to adverse events during childhood and an unexposed group. Between two and four weeks of life, the newborn will perform a brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. The measurement of intracranial volume will be obtained from the processing of MRI image. Head circumference will also be measured at the day of the brain MRI, since it is a powerful predictor of total brain volume in the neonates.