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Centre de recherche
Monday, April 11 2022
Press release

Vulnerability to mental disorders begins before birth

MONTREAL, April 11, 2022 – People’s vulnerability to developing mental disorders is influenced by risk factors that impact their brain development during pregnancy, researchers at CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre have found.

In an international study published in Biological Psychiatry, CHU Sainte-Justine researcher and UdeM psychiatry and neuroscience professor Tomas Paus, with a PhD student Yash Patel, explain how fetal brains bear the seeds of future mental health.

The work was done in collaboration with the ENIGMA Consortium and involved dozens of researchers in countries across the world.

Scientists have long known that the morphology of the cerebral cortex, grey matter in the outer layer of the brain, differs in psychiatric disorders. But the neurobiological factors that cause abnormalities in cortical areas during growth has largely gone undetermined.

To better understand the particular development of the cerebral cortex in people with mental disorders, as well as the influence of external risk factors, Paus and his team conducted a joint analysis of imaging data from 27,359 individuals.

The influence of perinatal risk factors

Using magnetic resonance imaging and reconstruction software, the researchers studied and compared the surfaces of different cortical areas of the brain of people with a mental-health disorder to those in control subjects, classifying each by diagnosis (e.g., schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

The analysis identified marked differences in the configuration of the surface of the associative cortex (responsible for the complex operations of information processing) in people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, and children with psychological problems.

Using gene-expression data from existing databases, Paus and colleagues were able to relate the patterns of these differences in surface area to those in the cellular events underlying early brain development. In the last step, they identified the intersection between these developmental processes and the genes associated with perinatal risk factors, such as birth weight, lack of oxygen, maternal hypertension and prematurity.

“The cortical surface of the adult brain provides a window into the events that shape the cerebral cortex and that precede a wide range of mental diseases,” Paus said. “A comprehensive understanding of how perinatal risks can interfere with different cellular and molecular mechanisms will ultimately lead to exploring new avenues of treatment.”

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About this study

« Virtual ontogeny of cortical growth preceding mental illness » by Tomas Paus, Yash Patel et al, was published March 4, 2022 in Biological Psychiatry.

About the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre

The CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre is a leading mother-child research institution affiliated with the Université de Montréal. It brings together more than 210 research investigators, including over 110 clinician-scientists, as well as 450 graduate and postgraduate students focused on finding innovative prevention means, faster and less invasive treatments, as well as personalized approaches to medicine. The centre is an integral part of CHU Sainte-Justine, which is the largest mother-child centre in Canada.
research.chusj.org
@CR_CHUSJ

Media resource person:

Justine Mondoux-Turcotte
Consultant — Media and External Relations
CHU Sainte-Justine
514 213-4488
justine.mondoux-turcotte.hsj@ssss.gouv.qc.ca 

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Updated on 9/28/2022
Created on 5/17/2022
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