Maternal Stress and Vulnerability in Offspring: Hippocampal Mechanisms of Resilience

Maternal stress (MS) is recognized as a critical risk factor for the mental and physical well-being of children, and animal models of chronic stress have shown depressive-like behaviors in their offspring. Given its established association with stress-related effects, the hippocampus has been investigated as a mechanism of vulnerability following MS. Indeed, offspring from chronically stressed mothers show changes in hippocampal structure, most notably in the dentate gyrus (DG), the cortical input region of the hippocampus critical for the formation of episodic memories.
Source: Biological Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Commentary Source Type: research