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Resting state functional MRI in infants with prenatal opioid exposure—a pilot study

  • Paediatric Neuroradiology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Exposure to prenatal opioids may adversely impact the developing brain networks. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate alterations in amygdalar functional connectivity in human infants with prenatal opioid exposure.

Methods

In this prospective IRB approved study, we performed resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) in 10 infants with prenatal opioid exposure and 12 infants without prenatal drug exposure at < 48 weeks corrected gestational age. Following standard preprocessing, we performed seed-based functional connectivity analysis with the right and left amygdala as the regions of interest after correcting for maternal depression and infant sex. We compared functional connectivity of the amygdala network between infants with and without prenatal opioid exposure.

Results

There were significant differences in connectivity of the amygdala seed regions to the several cortical regions including the medial prefrontal cortex in infants who had prenatal opioid exposure when compared with opioid naïve infants.

Conclusion

This finding of increased amygdala functional connectivity in infants with in utero opioid exposure suggests a potential role of maternal opioid exposure on infants’ altered amygdala function. This association with prenatal exposure needs to be replicated in future larger studies.

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Funding

RR was supported by the American Roentgen Ray Scholarship Award 2018 and Radiological Society of North America Seed Grant 2018. SS and RR were supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award, R01HD096800 (PI: Sadhasivam). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Rupa Radhakrishnan, Nahla M. H. Elsaid, Thomas A. Reher, Karmen K. Yoder, Andrew J. Saykin & Yu-Chien Wu

  2. Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health, 705, Riley Hospital Drive, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA

    Rupa Radhakrishnan, Senthilkumar Sadhasivam & Abbey C. Hines

  3. Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, Yale School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA

    Nahla M. H. Elsaid

  4. Department of Anesthesia, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA

    Senthilkumar Sadhasivam

  5. Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Abbey C. Hines

Authors
  1. Rupa Radhakrishnan
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  2. Nahla M. H. Elsaid
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  3. Senthilkumar Sadhasivam
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  4. Thomas A. Reher
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  5. Abbey C. Hines
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  6. Karmen K. Yoder
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  7. Andrew J. Saykin
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  8. Yu-Chien Wu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rupa Radhakrishnan.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in the studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. For minor participants, informed consent was obtained from the guardian.

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Radhakrishnan, R., Elsaid, N.M.H., Sadhasivam, S. et al. Resting state functional MRI in infants with prenatal opioid exposure—a pilot study. Neuroradiology 63, 585–591 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-020-02552-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-020-02552-3

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