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Noora M. Scheinin

Possible papers associated with this exact author name in Arrow. This page groups case-insensitive exact name matches and is not a full identity disambiguation profile.

3 papers

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YNICL Journal 2020 Journal Article

Newborn amygdalar volumes are associated with maternal prenatal psychological distress in a sex-dependent way

Satu J. Lehtola
Jetro J. Tuulari
Noora M. Scheinin
Linnea Karlsson
Riitta Parkkola
Harri Merisaari
John D. Lewis
Vladimir S. Fonov

Maternal psychological distress during pregnancy (PPD) 1 1 prenatal psychosocial distress has been associated with changes in offspring amygdalar and hippocampal volumes. Studies on child amygdalae suggest that sex moderates the vulnerability of fetal brains to prenatal stress. However, this has not yet been observed in these structures in newborns. Newborn studies are crucial, as they minimize the confounding influence of postnatal life. We investigated the effects of maternal prenatal psychological symptoms on newborn amygdalar and hippocampal volumes and their interactions with newborn sex in 123 newborns aged 2–5 weeks (69 males, 54 females). Based on earlier studies, we anticipated small, but statistically significant effects of PPD on the volumes of these structures. Maternal psychological distress was measured at gestational weeks (GW) 2 2 gestational weeks 14, 24 and 34 using Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90, anxiety scale) 3 3 Symptom Checklist-90 and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) 4 4 Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale questionnaires. Newborn sex was found to moderate the relationship between maternal distress symptoms at GW 24 and the volumes of left and right amygdala. This relationship was negative and significant only in males. No significant main effect or sex-based moderation was found for hippocampal volumes. This newborn study provides evidence for a sex-dependent influence of maternal psychiatric symptoms on amygdalar structural development. This association may be relevant to later psychopathology.

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YNIMG Journal 2019 Journal Article

Test-retest reliability of Diffusion Tensor Imaging metrics in neonates

Harri Merisaari
Jetro J. Tuulari
Linnea Karlsson
Noora M. Scheinin
Riitta Parkkola
Jani Saunavaara
Tuire Lähdesmäki
Satu J. Lehtola

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been widely used in children and adults to study the microstructural features of the brain. Its use in neonate brains has been limited. Neonate brains are almost completely unmyelinated, and this together with the tendency for babies to move during a scanning session may affect the reliability of the measurements. Here we divided a 96 direction acquisition into three segments, and analysed the intra scan test-retest reliability for pairs of segments. Each segment was subjected to a rigorous quality control, and from the surviving data we chose 25 diffusion encoding directions from each segment, and assessed the pairwise reliability of the most common DTI metrics. This pairwise reliability was assessed for data from 86 infants. We used tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS), voxelwise and ROI analysis schemes, to see potential differential effects of analysis strategy and post processing on the obtained DTI metrics. We found that intra class correlation coefficient (ICC) values were generally high (ICC > 0. 80). Residual motion in the data, after quality control, was not found to associate with the diffusion metrics. The results indicate that DTI metrics from neonate data can be reliable, even at relatively low angular resolution that are common for neonate scans. The results lend confidence to the use of neonate DTI data in cross sectional and longitudinal analyses in brain white matter skeleton. Future studies should assess the reliability of fiber tracking techniques in neonate data.

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YNIMG Journal 2018 Journal Article

Affective and non-affective touch evoke differential brain responses in 2-month-old infants

Emma H. Jönsson
Kalle Kotilahti
Juha Heiskala
Helena Backlund Wasling
Håkan Olausson
Ilona Croy
Hanna Mustaniemi
Petri Hiltunen

Caressing touch is an effective way to communicate emotions and to create social bonds. It is also one of the key mediators of early parental bonding. The caresses are generally thought to represent a social form of touching and indeed, slow, gentle brushing is encoded in specialized peripheral nerve fibers, the C-tactile (CT) afferents. In adults, areas such as the posterior insula and superior temporal sulcus are activated by affective, slow stroking touch but not by fast stroking stimulation. However, whether these areas are activated in infants, after social tactile stimulation, is unknown. In this study, we compared the total hemoglobin responses measured with diffuse optical tomography (DOT) in the left hemisphere following slow and fast stroking touch stimulation in 16 2-month-old infants. We compared slow stroking (optimal CT afferent stimulation) to fast stroking (non-optimal CT stimulation). Activated regions were delineated using two methods: one based on contrast between the two conditions, and the other based on voxel-based statistical significance of the difference between the two conditions. The first method showed a single activation cluster in the temporal cortex with center of gravity in the middle temporal gyrus where the total hemoglobin increased after the slow stroking relative to the fast stroking (p = 0. 04 uncorrected). The second method revealed a cluster in the insula with an increase in total hemoglobin in the insular cortex in response to slow stroking relative to fast stroking (p = 0. 0005 uncorrected; p = 0. 04 corrected for multiple comparisons). These activation clusters encompass areas that are involved in processing of affective, slow stroking touch in the adult brain. We conclude that the infant brain shows a pronounced and adult-like response to slow stroking touch compared to fast stroking touch in the insular cortex but the expected response in the primary somatosensory cortex was not found at this age. The results imply that emotionally valent touch is encoded in the brain in adult-like manner already soon after birth and this suggests a potential for involvement of touch in bonding with the caretaker.

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