Utilizing maternal prenatal cognition as a predictor of newborn brain measures of intellectual development

ABSTRACT

Identifying reliable indicators of cognitive functioning prior to age five has been challenging. Prior studies have shown that maternal cognition, as indexed by intellectual quotient (IQ) and years of education, predict child intelligence at school age. We examined whether maternal full scale IQ, education, and inhibitory control (index of executive function) are associated with newborn brain measures and toddler language outcomes to assess potential indicators of early cognition. We hypothesized that maternal indices of cognition would be associated with brain areas implicated in intelligence in school-age children and adults in the newborn period. Thirty-seven pregnant women and their newborns underwent an MRI scan. T₂-weighted images and surface-based morphometric analysis were used to compute local brain volumes in newborn infants. Maternal cognition indices were associated with local brain volumes for infants in the anterior and posterior cingulate, occipital lobe, and pre/postcentral gyrus – regions associated with IQ, executive function, or sensori-motor functions in children and adults. Maternal education and executive function, but not maternal intelligence, were associated with toddler language scores at 12 and 24 months. Newborn brain volumes did not predict language scores. Overall, the pre/postcentral gyrus and occipital lobe may be unique indicators of early intellectual development in the newborn period. Given that maternal executive function as measured by inhibitory control has robust associations with the newborn brain and is objective, brief, and easy to administer, it may be a useful predictor of early developmental and cognitive capacity for young children.

KEYWORDS:

• Maternal cognition
• executive function
• newborn brain morphology
• IQ

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Juan Sanchez-Peña, I-Chin Chiang, Deborah Jaspen, Beth Jewett, Dana Serino, Samantha Garavelli, Kirwan Walsh, David Semanek, Grace Liu, Kathleen Durkin, Erica Lambeth, and Nelson Chen for their invaluable assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/09297049.2023.2233155.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the NIDA R01DA017820 (BSP and TSR), NIMH P50MH090966 (BSP), NIMH T32MH016434 (BSP and MNS), NIMH R01MH117983 (MNS), NCATS KL2RR024157 and KL2TR000081 (MNS), NICHD K23HD092589 (MNS), MJS Foundation (Whitaker Scholar Developmental Neuropsychiatry program; MNS) and NCATS TL1TR001875 (AP, CMH).