2020/11/09 by Francheska M. Merced‐Nieves, Kelsey L. C. Dzwilewski, Kelsey L.C. Dzwilewski +4 · 1 citation
Medicine · #Birth, Development, and Health #Infant Development and Preterm Care #Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
paper · doi:10.1002/dev.22059
openalex publication_date 2020/11/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Studies have shown that prenatal stress can negatively impact neurodevelopment, but little is known about its effect on early cognitive development. We assessed the impact of prenatal stress on cognition in 152 7.5-month-old infants using Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), maternal telomere length (MTL), and a Stressful Life Events (SLE) Scale. A visual recognition memory task consisting of nine blocks, each with one familiarization trial (two identical stimuli) followed by two test trials (one familiar stimulus, one novel), was administered. Outcomes assessed included: average time looking at stimuli (measure: processing speed), time to reach looking time criterion (measure: attention), and the proportion of time looking at the novel stimulus (measure: recognition memory). We examined the association of each stress measure with each outcome adjusted for infant age and sex, which of the two stimuli in each set was novel, household income, and maternal age, education, and IQ. Higher prenatal stress was associated with shorter looking durations [PSS (β = -1.6, 95% CI: -2.5, -0.58); SLE (β = 0.58, 95% CI: -0.08, 1.24); MTL (β = 1.81, 95% CI: 0.18, 3.44)] and longer time to reach criterion [PSS (β = 9.1, 95% CI: 1.6, 16.6); SLE (β = 12.2, 95% CI: 1.9, 24.1); MTL (β = -23.1, 95% CI: -45.3, -0.9)], suggesting that higher prenatal stress is associated with decreased visual attention in infancy.