Preprint

Review

How Prenatal Exposures Shape the Infant Brain: Insights from Infant Neuroimaging Studies

Altmetrics

Downloads

699

Views

756

Comments

A peer-reviewed article of this preprint also exists.

Alexander Dufford^*,Marisa Spann,Dustin Scheinost

This version is not peer-reviewed

Submitted:

15 April 2021

Posted:

19 April 2021

You are already at the latest version

Alerts

Abstract

Brain development during the prenatal period is rapid and unparalleled by any other time during development. Biological systems undergoing rapid development are at higher risk for disorganizing influences. Therefore, certain prenatal exposures impact brain development, increasing risk for negative neurodevelopmental outcome. While prenatal exposures have been associated with cognitive and behavioral outcomes later in life, the underlying macroscopic brain pathways remain unclear. Here, we review studies investigating the association between prenatal exposures and infant brain development focusing on prenatal exposures via maternal physical health factors, maternal mental health factors, and maternal drug and medication use. Further, we discuss the need for studies to consider multiple prenatal exposures in parallel and suggest future directions for this body of research.

Keywords:

Subject: Social Sciences - Psychology

Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.