“But the brains of the ones whose mothers had adverse experiences had to work harder to do the same task- they literally needed more resources to fuel the activity in their prefrontal cortex.” “We saw that maternal adversity was not related to whether children performed well on the test,” Dr. However, those whose moms experienced adverse events used more oxygenated blood in their prefrontal cortex during these moments of control than those whose didn’t. The study found that both children whose moms did experience stress and those whose didn’t experience a lot of stress showed similar inhibitory control in terms of their behavioral performance on the task (avoided touching the cloud). Miller wondered? And was this type of control easy for them? Most importantly, were there differences in the “brain power,” or oxygenated blood needed to accomplish the task, between different children? ![]() Could the children follow instructions and not touch the screen when they likely wanted to touch it, Dr. This go/no go or touch/don’t touch experiment was an exercise in inhibitory control, a skill that is considered important for children to succeed in the world. In the experiment, the children were told to touch a computer screen each time they saw a cartoon picture of a sun and not to touch each time they saw clouds. Miller and his team wanted to see if there were atypical patterns of brain oxygenation among children with more difficult temperaments and those whose moms experienced adverse events. When a part of the brain is working harder to do a task, more oxygenated blood is sent to that region to fuel the brain activity. Second, the children were asked to play a go/no go video game while wearing an fNIRS cap- a device that, when placed on the scalp, measures the blood oxygen in an activated part of the brain. First, the moms were asked to answer questions about adverse experiences in their lives (miscarriage, being involved in an accident, experiencing the death of a loved one, and more) adverse experiences in their child’s life (separation anxiety, illness, bullying, spanking, and more) and their child’s temperament- the child’s experiences relative to fear, laugher, shyness, smiling, inhibitory control, soothability, and more. It involved 36 mother-child pairs who underwent two types of testing for the study. Jonas Miller, a former Stanford postdoctoral researcher and current University of Connecticut Psychological Sciences Assistant Professor. The study, published October 2022 in the scientific journal Developmental Psychobiology, was led by Dr. Still, study authors pointed out the link between maternal stress and a child’s brain function was stronger than the link between that child’s personality and brain function. This means that a child’s personality, not just a mom’s stress, affects that child’s brain function. ![]() In addition, the study found that children who are “less temperamentally regulated,” or more prone to experiencing negative emotions and difficulties with self-control, needed to use extra brain power to inhibit their impulsive behavior, too. Specifically, the researchers found that moms who experienced stress as children, teens, and young women had children who needed to use more “brain power,” or neurological resources like oxygen, to inhibit an impulsive behavior than did the children of women with a less stressful life history. Researchers at the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center (PRC) at Stanford Medicine have found a link between the adverse events a woman experiences before pregnancy and the way their child’s brain functions around three to five years old. A mom’s lifetime stress may affect their child’s brain function, Stanford researchers find
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