PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Buss, Claudia
AU  - Lord, Catherine
AU  - Wadiwalla, Mehereen
AU  - Hellhammer, Dirk H.
AU  - Lupien, Sonia J.
AU  - Meaney, Michael J.
AU  - Pruessner, Jens C.
TI  - Maternal Care Modulates the Relationship between Prenatal Risk and Hippocampal Volume in Women But Not in Men
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3252-06.2007
DP  - 2007 Mar 07
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 2592--2595
VI  - 27
IP  - 10
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/10/2592.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/10/2592.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2007 Mar 07; 27
AB  - Smaller hippocampal volume is associated with psychiatric disorders. Variations in hippocampal volume are discussed as both a consequence of the neurotoxic effects of stress and as a pre-existing condition leading to increased vulnerability for cognitive and emotional impairments. To investigate whether early experience can account for variability in hippocampal volume in adulthood (vulnerability hypothesis), we assessed the relationship between birth weight and hippocampal volume in 44 subjects. The reported quality of maternal care in early childhood, as evaluated by the Parental Bonding Inventory, was used as index of the quality of the postnatal environment. Hippocampal volume was assessed from magnetic resonance images using a manual segmentation protocol. We show that birth weight significantly predicts hippocampal volume in adulthood only in female subjects reporting low maternal care. The results suggest that the postnatal environment modulates the neurodevelopmental consequences of prenatal risk and that this effect is sex-specific.