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A Longitudinal Study of Children's Hippocampal Development: Investigating Maternal Physical Activity, Depression, and Education.

Overview

Authors: Arash Aghamohammadi‐Sereshki1, Jess E. Reynolds2, Merv Singh1,3, Jamie Roeske1,3, Rhonda C. Bell4, Laura Forbes5, Gerald F. Giesbrecht3,6,7, Nicole Letourneau3,6,7,8,9, Deborah Dewey3,6,7,10, Catherine Lebel1,3,10
ORCID iDs: Arash Aghamohammadi‐Sereshki, Jess E. Reynolds, Merv Singh, Jamie Roeske, Rhonda C. Bell, Gerald F. Giesbrecht, Nicole Letourneau, Deborah Dewey, Catherine Lebel
  1. Department of Radiology, Cumming School of Medicine University of Calgary Calgary Alberta Canada
  2. The Kids Research Institute Australia The University of Western Australia Perth Australia
  3. Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute University of Calgary Calgary Alberta Canada
  4. Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Research Innovation University of Alberta Edmonton Alberta Canada
  5. Department of Family Relations & Applied Nutrition University of Guelph Guelph Ontario Canada
  6. Department of Pediatrics, Cumming School of Medicine University of Calgary Calgary Alberta Canada
  7. Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine University of Calgary Calgary Alberta Canada
  8. Faculty of Nursing University of Calgary Calgary Alberta Canada
  9. Department of Psychiatry, Cumming School of Medicine University of Calgary Calgary Alberta Canada
  10. Hotchkiss Brain Institute University of Calgary Calgary Alberta Canada
Institutions: University of Calgary (Canada); The Kids Research Institute Australia (Australia); The University of Western Australia (Australia); Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute; University of Alberta (Canada); University of Guelph (Canada); Hotchkiss Brain Institute (Canada)
Journal: Developmental neurobiology, volume 86, issue 2, article e70019
Dates: received 26 August 2025; accepted 21 February 2026; published online 8 March 2026; in print April 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY-NC
Identifiers: DOI 10.1002/dneu.70019 · PMID 41797390 · PMCID PMC12968595 · OpenAlex W7134252822
Open access: hybrid, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: empty repository
Categories: structural MRI / diffusion (modality), human (organism), depression (population), developmental (subfield)
Methods: Connectivity, Statistics, fMRI & imaging
Keywords: APrON study, depression, diffusion tensor imaging, hippocampal development, longitudinal study, magnetic resonance imaging, physical activity
MeSH: Child Development*, Depression*, Educational Status*, Exercise*, Hippocampus*, Adolescent, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Mothers, Neurodevelopment, Pregnancy, Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects (* major topic)
Topic: Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications (Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging, Medicine), according to OpenAlex
Funding: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (DA5‐170269, MOP‐136797, IHD‐134090); Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute; Canada Research Chairs Program
Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 105 references in the paper

Abstract

The developing hippocampus is particularly sensitive to early environmental influences, including during pregnancy. This longitudinal neuroimaging study examined associations between prenatal maternal physical activity and depression, maternal education, and hippocampal development from early childhood to early adolescence. Participants were mothers and their 113 children (59 females; mean age 4.16 ± 1.25 years at first scan) with 510 magnetic resonance imaging scans. Maternal physical activity and depressive symptoms were assessed during the second trimester. Hippocampal diffusion metrics—including fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), and radial diffusivity (RD)—as well as volume were measured. Developmental trajectories were analyzed with generalized fractional polynomial mixed models. Results showed significant age‐related changes in hippocampal volume and diffusivity, with sex differences in FA development. Bilateral hippocampal volume increased nonlinearly with age, and FA, MD, and RD changed in line with typical brain maturation patterns. However, in contrast to our pre‐registered hypotheses, prenatal maternal physical activity was not significantly associated with hippocampal structure. Additionally, in exploratory analyses, we found no significant associations between maternal education or prenatal maternal depression and hippocampal structure. These findings provide a comprehensive characterization of hippocampal development from childhood to adolescence and suggest that prenatal maternal physical activity, depression, and education are not strongly related to hippocampal structure. This work underscores the value of longitudinal neuroimaging and flexible modeling approaches in understanding early brain development.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY-NC), from the paper cited above.

Code

No file of the authors' code could be read here: it is described below, and read at its source.

OSF z82pu

License: none: the authors keep all their rights
State: the link answers, verified on 28 September 2026
Evidence: files inventoried
Size: 0 files, 0 scripts
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Found in: the references
Not found: README, license file, CITATION.cff, environment file, tests, continuous integration, documentation
Availability: 1 check, the latest on 28 September 2026: the link answers (HTTP 200)
  • 28 September 2026: the link answers (HTTP 200)
At the source:

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Data

Datasets cited

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/axz5r/.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY-NC), from the paper cited above.

Versions

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Version 2, 28 September 2026

  • Publisher: n/a → Wiley

Version 1, 28 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 10 authors, 7 keywords, 17 MeSH terms, 3 funders, 99 references.

Cite

This paper

Aghamohammadi‐Sereshki, A., Reynolds, J. E., Singh, M., Roeske, J., Bell, R. C., Forbes, L., Giesbrecht, G. F., Letourneau, N., Dewey, D., & Lebel, C. (2026). A Longitudinal Study of Children's Hippocampal Development: Investigating Maternal Physical Activity, Depression, and Education. Developmental neurobiology, 86(2), e70019. https://doi.org/10.1002/dneu.70019

BibTeX

@article{aghamohammadisereshki2026longitudinal,
author = {Aghamohammadi‐Sereshki, Arash and Reynolds, Jess E. and Singh, Merv and Roeske, Jamie and Bell, Rhonda C. and Forbes, Laura and Giesbrecht, Gerald F. and Letourneau, Nicole and Dewey, Deborah and Lebel, Catherine},
title = {{A Longitudinal Study of Children's Hippocampal Development: Investigating Maternal Physical Activity, Depression, and Education}},
journal = {Developmental neurobiology},
year = {2026},
month = apr,
volume = {86},
number = {2},
pages = {e70019},
publisher = {Wiley},
issn = {1932-8451},
doi = {10.1002/dneu.70019},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/dneu.70019},
pmid = {41797390},
pmcid = {PMC12968595}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Aghamohammadi‐Sereshki, Arash
AU - Reynolds, Jess E.
AU - Singh, Merv
AU - Roeske, Jamie
AU - Bell, Rhonda C.
AU - Forbes, Laura
AU - Giesbrecht, Gerald F.
AU - Letourneau, Nicole
AU - Dewey, Deborah
AU - Lebel, Catherine
TI - A Longitudinal Study of Children's Hippocampal Development: Investigating Maternal Physical Activity, Depression, and Education
T2 - Developmental neurobiology
J2 - Dev Neurobiol
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/04/01
VL - 86
IS - 2
SP - e70019
SN - 1932-8451
PB - Wiley
DO - 10.1002/dneu.70019
UR - https://doi.org/10.1002/dneu.70019
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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