Prenatal Maternal Factors and Offspring Brain Development: Neuroimaging and Neuropsychological Outcomes

The maternal-fetal interface represents a dynamic environment where maternal health, lifestyle, and environmental exposures directly interact with fetal brain development. Emerging evidence suggests that maternal factors during pregnancy — including physical activity, nutrition, stress, and metabolic and immune profiles — play a crucial role in shaping the offspring’s neuropsychological outcomes. However, the precise cognitive, behavioral, and emotional consequences of these prenatal influences, and the brain pathways that underlie them, have yet to be fully elucidated.This Research Topic aims to gather research that connects maternal exposures and neuroimaging measures with clearly defined neuropsychological outcomes in the offspring — cognitive, behavioral, emotional, or clinical. Priority is given to studies that use neuroimaging (structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), track-weighted imaging, fMRI, EEG, and MEG) as a tool to explain or predict these outcomes, rather than studies reporting neuroimaging or maternal-fetal physiology findings alone. By linking the maternal environment to developmental neuropsychology, this collection aims to identify early biomarkers of neurodevelopmental trajectories and their behavioral and cognitive expression.We welcome Original Research, Clinical Trials, Reviews, and Methodological papers focusing on:- Advanced neuroimaging findings linked to cognitive, behavioral, or emotional outcomes in offspring, in relation to maternal lifestyle (including but not limited to physical activity and nutrition) during pregnancy and prenatal interventions.- Cognitive, behavioral, or emotional consequences of offspring brain alterations associated with maternal environmental exposures (including, but not limited to, tobacco, alcohol, opioids, and chemicals) during gestation and the postnatal period.- Neuropsychological outcomes associated with maternal stress, metabolic health, or immune responses at the maternal-fetal interface, and their relationship to offspring brain structure, microstructure, and functional connectivity.- Novel neuroimaging methodologies and diagnostic innovations for predicting neurobehavioral and cognitive outcomes.- Sex-specific differences in neuropsychological and behavioral trajectories.- Neurobiological mediation between maternal environmental factors and offspring cognitive, behavioral, or emotional development. Topic editors: Yao Wu, Emily Merz Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/84190/prenatal-maternal-factors-and-offspring-brain-development-neuroimaging-and-neuropsychological-outcomes