Introduction Different complications of pregnancy like maternal stress, obstetric complications, maternal infections, prenatal exposure to nutritional deficiency and reduced fetal growth increase the risk for developing a major psychiatric disorder. This study aims to develop a better understanding of the impact from different childbearing periods on gyrification of the cortex from adults. Since gyrification is a relatively stable neurobiological marker we are able to detect antecedents from deviating cortical development during pregnancy.
Methods We investigated 441 healthy participants (65% women; average age 30 years (SD = 10.7) from the FOR2107 study and acquired T1-weighted structural MRI-data. Gyrification values were extracted with the CAT12-Toolbox and polynomial multiple Regressions were conducted using a threshold-free cluster enhancement (TFCE).
Results There was a significant positive association between weeks of pregnancy and gyrification in postcentral, precentral and superior frontal cortical areas. In the left hemisphere we found this association also in the insula and the supra marginal cortex, in the right hemisphere in paracentral and medial orbitofrontal regions.
Conclusion Large-scale effects demonstrate that deviating prenatal developmental processes considerably influence gyrification and that these deficits in cortical folding are not compensated during postnatal brain development. Grey matter volumes of the insula are transdiagnostically disturbed in main psychiatric diseases like schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety disorder. Potentially, early acquired aberrations in gyrification in the insula ease later pathogenic mechanisms that lead to psychopathology. The insula is associated with recognition of deviations from expectations and interceptive functions. In psychiatric disorders disturbed behavioural adaptations which could be a result from structural changes in this brain anatomical region can be found transdiagnostically. Besides, a higher risk for developing a psychiatric disorder could also be moderated by reduced cognitive functioning that can be traced back to prenatally acquired changes in gyrification. Studies have already shown that deviated cortical folding in preterm newborns is associated with worse neurodevelopment outcome.
