Maternal sensitivity predicts anterior hippocampal functional networks in early childhood.

Abstract

Maternal care influences child hippocampal development. The hippocampus is functionally organized along an anterior-posterior axis. Little is known with regards to the extent maternal care shapes offspring anterior and posterior hippocampal (aHPC, pHPC) functional networks. This study examined maternal behavior, especially maternal sensitivity, at 6months postpartum in relation to aHPC and pHPC functional networks of children at age 4 and 6years. Maternal sensitivity was assessed at 6months via the "Maternal Behavior Q Sort (MBQS) mini for video". Subsequently, 61 and 76 children underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), respectively, at 4 and 6years of age. We found that maternal sensitivity assessed at 6months postpartum was associated with theright aHPC functional networks in children at both 4 and 6years of age. At age 4years, maternal sensitivity was associated positively with the right aHPC's functional connectivity with the sensorimotor network and negatively with the aHPC's functional connectivity with the top-down cognitive control network. At 6years of age, maternal sensitivity was linked positively with the right aHPC's functional connectivity with the visual-processing network. Our findings suggested that maternal sensitivity in infancy has a long-term impact on the anterior hippocampal functional network in preschool children, implicating a potential role of maternal care in shaping child brain development in early life.