A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests new links between social disadvantages and fetal brain development. In the study, 399 mothers were oversampled for low income and completed social background measures during pregnancy. Further, the researchers examined 289 brain development diffusion MRI scans of healthy newborns from socially diverse families shortly after birth.

The findings of the analysis revealed that prenatal exposure to measures of social disadvantages, such as education, insurance status, the income-to-needs ratio [INR], neighborhood deprivation, and nutrition and psychosocial stressors like depression, stress, life events, and racial discrimination, was associated with an altered microstructure of white matter in frontolimbic pathways of the brain. The frontolimbic pathways are the most important part of socio-emotional development.

In the longitudinal study, mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) were also measured via probabilistic tractography. The tractography revealed that social disadvantage was independently associated with lower mean diffusivity in the fetal brain. Also, similar results were observed after accounting for maternal medical morbidities and prenatal drug exposure. 

(Source: https://theprint.in/health/study-finds-impact-of-social-disadvantages-on-fetal-brain-development/1164047/ )