Published in:
01-12-2018 | High Impact Review in Neuroscience, Neurology or Psychiatry - Review Article
Prenatal stress and enhanced developmental plasticity
Authors:
Sarah Hartman, Jay Belsky
Published in:
Journal of Neural Transmission
|
Issue 12/2018
Login to get access
Abstract
Two separate lines of inquiry indicate (a) that prenatal stress is associated with heightened behavioral and physiological reactivity, and (b) that these postnatal phenotypes are associated with increased susceptibility to both positive and negative developmental experiences and environmental exposures. This research considered together raises the intriguing hypothesis first advanced by Pluess and Belsky (Dev Psychopathol 23:29–38, 2011) that prenatal-stress fosters, promotes or “programs” postnatal developmental plasticity. In this paper, we review further evidence consistent with this proposition, including a novel animal study which experimentally manipulated both prenatal stress and postnatal rearing. Directions for future work focused on mechanisms mediating the plasticity-inducing effects of prenatal stress and the moderators of such effects are outlined.