We investigated the effects of prenatal maternal psychological distress in pregnant Canadian mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic on the early development of the infant brain. We scanned infants using the 3T MRI at the Alberta Children's hospital including resting state functional and diffusion MRI. We found that amygdala microstructural pathways were significantly related to functional connectivity between the right and left amygdala at 2-months of age. These infant MRI measures were correlated with maternal anxiety and psychological distress where we found relatively less mature tracts and lower amygdala-prefrontal functional connectivity were related to higher prenatal maternal psychological distress.
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