Early signs of anxiety, depression may be evident in the brains of newborns
"The fact that we could see these connectivity patterns in the brain at birth helps answer a critical question about whether they could be responsible for early symptoms linked to depression and anxiety or whether these symptoms themselves lead to changes in the brain," said Cynthia Rogers, MD, an assistant professor of child psychiatry. "We have found that already at birth, brain connections may be responsible for the development of problems later in life." Initially, Dr. Rogers and her team set out to identify differences in functional brain connectivity -- the coordination of activity across different parts of the brain -- between babies born prematurely and others born at full term. They conducted functional MRI scans in 65 full-term newborns and 57 premature infants born at least ten weeks early. The latter were scanned on or near their due dates. The researchers looked for differences in the connectivity patterns across various regions of the brain hopi...