Prenatal Immune Activation and Maternal Mental Health as Predictors of Infant Sleep and Cognitive Development

Introduction: Historical data on infection during pregnancy suggests that exposure to COVID-19 related maternal inflammatory activation (MIA) will increase risk for developmental disorders in childhood. Yet, we know of no studies that have examined associations between COVID-19 related MIA and infant neurobehavioral development. Specifically, there is need to test whether the scale of mounted immune response to infection during pregnancy is reflected in infant neurobehavior.

Objective: Through assessment of mechanisms underlying the connection between prenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection and infant neurodevelopment, we will achieve better understanding of neurodevelopmental sequelae in an essential population. We will also isolate factors that promote more favorable and resilient outcome.

Methods: We will test the hypothesis that more severe forms of illness and earlier exposure during pregnancy will be linked with increased deficits in infant attentional processing, presumably due to MIA that may influence the development of networks supporting attention switching and saliency detection. Moreover, we will test whether maternal symptoms of depression may exacerbate these effects, due to the accumulation of multiple exposures with relevant impacts on infant neurodevelopment. To identify potentially modifiable pathways, we will examine how dependencies of infant attention on MIA is altered by early sleep patterns. Specifically, we will use a smart-wearable, the Gabi band, to test whether restorative sleep is reduced in infants of mothers that experienced more severe illness and/or those experiencing post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) and whether restorative sleep is protective, reducing the influence of MIA on infant behavioral outcomes.

Results: Pending.

Conclusion/Discussion: Pending.

Key Topics:

• Clinical assessment and pathogenesis of clinical manifestations
• Prenatal exposures