Effects of perinatal distress in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's brains and social cognition.

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the population, including pregnant women. A Canadian study reveals that about a quarter of them experienced high levels of depression and anxiety. This perinatal distress could have consequences on the development of children, in particular by disrupting communication between the amygdala, responsible for emotions, and the prefrontal cortex, involved in making social decisions and understanding others. These changes could harm the development of social cognition, such as theory of mind, an essential ability for understanding the feelings, perceptions, and intentions of others. This project seeks to understand how the distress experienced by some mothers during the pandemic could influence the development of their children's brains and their abilities to understand the thoughts and emotions of others. We think that the higher the maternal distress, the more certain connections in the child's brain might be altered, which could reduce their performance on theory of mind tasks. Mothers completed questionnaires about anxiety and depression during pregnancy and up to a year after birth. Children, ages 4 to 5, will do an MRI session and an activity to assess theory of mind. We will analyze their brain images to see if maternal distress had an impact on their brain connections and their performance on these tasks. This research will help identify the specific needs of children born during this period, highlighting the potential effects of the stressful events of the pandemic at a critical time in neurocognitive development.