Increased risk for anxiety may begin before birth, shaped by infection or stressful events during pregnancy, according to a new preclinical study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. While scientists have long known that maternal difficulty during pregnancy may raise a child’s risk for psychiatric illness, the biological pathways between these prenatal experiences and later mental health have been unclear.
The study, published Sept. 10 in Cell Reports, focuses on a region of the brain called the ventral dentate gyrus (vDG), part of the hippocampus that helps a person assess threats in the environment. The researchers discovered that adversity in the womb configured a small percentage of these brain cells to be overly active when faced with a threatening situation, creating a vulnerability to anxiety.
“Our data reveal prenatal adversity left lasting imprints on the neurons of the vDG linking gestational environment to anxiety-like behavior,” said Dr. Miklos Toth, the Arleen B. Rifkind, M.D. Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine, who co-led the research. “This mechanism may help explain the persistent stress sensitivity and avoidance seen in some individuals with innate anxiety.”
