Prenatal Programming in the Fetus and Placenta

Individual differences in risk for neuropsychiatric disorders are shaped before the individual is born. In this chapter, we summarize existing evidence from animal and human studies describing prenatal programming in the fetus and placenta in response to prenatal maternal stress, and associated outcomes seen in offspring neurobehavioral development and risk for psychopathology. First, we review fetal neurobehavioral development and assessment, including fetal physiological monitoring and fetal neuroimaging. We then highlight extant research on associations between fetal neurobehavior and later outcomes. Emerging research also points to the involvement of the placenta, which regulates the prenatal environment. We continue by describing how maternal stress can disrupt the placenta’s fundamental functions, highlighting the role of nutrient transfer, placental barrier permeability, serotonin signaling, and epigenetic changes to placental genes. We close by discussing the importance of sex differences in fetal and placental programming as well as developmental timing of exposures, and future directions for research.