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The effects of experience of discrimination and acculturation during pregnancy on the developing offspring brain

Neuropsychopharmacology (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

The experience of ethnic, racial, and structural inequalities is increasingly recognized as detrimental to health, and early studies suggest that its experience in pregnant mothers may affect the developing fetus. We characterized discrimination and acculturation experiences in a predominantly Hispanic sample of pregnant adolescent women and assessed their association with functional connectivity in their neonate’s brain. We collected self-report measures of acculturation, discrimination, maternal distress (i.e., perceived stress, childhood trauma, and depressive symptoms), and socioeconomic status in 165 women. Then, we performed a data-driven clustering of acculturation, discrimination, perceived stress, depressive symptoms, trauma, and socioeconomic status variables during pregnancy to determine whether discrimination or acculturation clustered into distinct factors. Discrimination and acculturation styles loaded onto different factors from perceived stress, depressive symptoms, trauma, and socioeconomic status, suggesting that they were distinct from other factors in our sample. We associated these data-driven maternal phenotypes (discrimination and acculturation styles) with measures of resting-state functional MRI connectivity of the infant amygdala (n = 38). Higher maternal report of assimilation was associated with weaker connectivity between their neonate’s amygdala and bilateral fusiform gyrus. Maternal experience of discrimination was associated with weaker connectivity between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex and stronger connectivity between the amygdala and fusiform of their neonate. Cautiously, the results may suggest a similarity to self-contained studies with adults, noting that the experience of discrimination and acculturation may influence amygdala circuitry across generations. Further prospective studies are essential that consider a more diverse population of minoritized individuals and with a comprehensive assessment of ethnic, racial, and structural factors.

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Fig. 1: Acculturation factors projected onto Berry’s model of acculturation.
Fig. 2: Associations between prenatal acculturation factors and offspring amygdala connectivity.
Fig. 3: Associations prenatal experiences of discrimination and offspring amygdala connectivity.

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Acknowledgements

We also wish to thank Kristiana Barbato, Dr. Ezra Aydin, and Dr. Angeliki Pollatou for helpful feedback on the manuscript concepts and Dr. Seonjoo Lee for providing initial consultation regarding the statistical analysis.

Funding

Data were provided by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) MH093677 (CM and BSP) grant. This work was also supported by NIMH K24MH127381 (MNS), R01MH126133 (MNS and DS), R01MH117983 Supplements 1 (APL) and 2 (AD); the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences TL1TR001875 (CMH); National Health and Lung and Blood Disease Institute R25HL096260, the BEST-DP: Biostatistics & Epidemiology Summer Training Diversity Program (RK and VO); Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development K23HD092589 (MNS); and the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Irving Scholar Award (MNS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Marisa N. Spann, Cristin M. Holland, Antonette Davids, Arline Pierre-Louis & Catherine Monk

  2. New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA

    Marisa N. Spann, Eileen Shea & Catherine Monk

  3. Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA

    Kiarra Alleyne, Claire Bang & Bin Cheng

  4. Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA

    Victoria Oyeneye

  5. Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Rebecca Kiflom

  6. Institute for the Developing Mind, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Bradley S. Peterson

  7. Department of Psychiatry, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Bradley S. Peterson

  8. Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Dustin Scheinost

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Contributions

MNS, BC, CM, BSP and DS contributed to conception or design of the work. MNS, KA, CMH, AD, APL, CB, VO, RK, ES, BSP, CM and DS contributed to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work. MNS, KA, APL, CB, VO, RK and DS wrote the manuscript. CMH, AD, ES, BC, BSP and CM critically revised the paper. All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work. CMH and KA contributed equally as second authors of the paper.

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Correspondence to Marisa N. Spann.

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Spann, M.N., Alleyne, K., Holland, C.M. et al. The effects of experience of discrimination and acculturation during pregnancy on the developing offspring brain. Neuropsychopharmacol. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-023-01765-3

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