A team of European researchers has in a pioneering study, released on Tuesday, found compelling evidence that maternal infections during pregnancy can have lasting effects on offspring brain function.The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Brain Medicine, may have implications for neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders like autism, schizophrenia, and depression.
The team from the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Slovakia investigated the impact of maternal immune activation (MIA) on hippocampal pyramidal neurons in newborn rat offspring.
The hippocampus is a crucial brain region involved in memory, emotion, and cognition. They found that prenatal inflammation significantly impairs neuronal excitability, which increases the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders associated with maternal infections.