Biology subjects

Luby, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Luby, J..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Infant Sensory Over-Responsivity: Relations to Early Life Adversity, Emerging Behavioral Problems, and Sensory Functional Connectivity

Background. Sensory over-responsivity (SOR) in mid- to late childhood is associated with early-life adversity (ELA) and psychopathology, yet the developmental origins and timing of these relationships remain unknown. This work leverages a longitudinal pediatric dataset enriched for ELA to characterize predictors and behavioral problems associated with infant/toddler SOR. Methods. Neonatal fMRI and longitudinal behavioral data were obtained from a sample (N=399) recruited during pregnancy and enriched for social disadvantage (SD). Negative binomial regression models were used to identify pre- and neonatal risk factors for and behavioral correlates of SOR at age two (Y2). Mediation analyses tested whether Y2 SOR mediates relationships between ELA and behavioral problems at age three (Y3). Relationships between neonatal functional connectivity (FC) measures and later SOR were also computed. Results. Two forms of prenatal ELA, SD and maternal psychosocial stress (PSS), positively predicted Y2 SOR, which in turn predicted Y2 and Y3 autism and anxiety problems, greater preschool internalizing symptoms, and greater preschool separation anxiety diagnoses. Positive relationships of prenatal PSS with Y3 autism, anxiety, and internalizing problems were partially mediated by Y2 SOR. Greater neonatal FC between the cortical somatomotor hand network and bilateral thalamus was also associated with SOR at one to two years later. Conclusions. The study results demonstrate the importance of infant/toddler SOR as an early predictor of autism and anxiety behaviors in early childhood and a mediating variable that links prenatal ELA with these behavioral outcomes. Results also implicate heightened neonatal signaling in sensory circuits as an early precursor of SOR.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2026

Intergenerational epigenetic signatures of prenatal adversity and their role in emerging child psychopathology

BackgroundAdversity during pregnancy is associated with alterations in offspring brain development. DNA methylation (DNAm) is a type of epigenetic modification is a putative mechanism for the intergenerational transfer of prenatal adversity on developmental outcomes. We examined the effects of prenatal social disadvantage (PSD) and prenatal psychosocial stress (PSS) on offspring epigenome-wide DNAm at four time points from infancy to age 4, and tested whether persistent DNAm signals mediated associations between PSD, PSS, and child psychopathology at ages 4-6. MethodsLongitudinal DNAm data (birth, Y1, Y2, Y3) was derived from salivary tissue of 281 infants (43.7% female) in the eLABE study. We examined epigenome-wide associations between DNAm and PSD and PSS. Linear models were adjusted for age, child sex, child race, maternal tobacco smoking, cell type composition, and batch effects. Mediation analyses tested whether birth DNAm mediated associations between prenatal exposures and internalizing and externalizing symptoms at ages 4-6. ResultsPSD was associated with 47 FDR-significant CpGs at birth and 3 at year 1. PSS was associated with 3 FDR-significant CpGs at birth. Thirteen CpGs showed PSD-associated significance across all four timepoints, including two CpGs associated with genes involved with neuronal maturation (BCL11B) and one CpG associated with a gene implicated in brain vascular health (ZNF474). Exploratory mediation analyses revealed an indirect effect of methylation at ZNF474 (cg19980369; p=0.028; pFDR=0.360) on the association between PSD and year 4-6 externalizing symptoms. ConclusionsPSD was associated with epigenetic signatures at birth, with a subset of associations persisting across early childhood and converging on cellular stress response biology. PSS showed minimal epigenetic associations, suggesting differential biological embedding of structural versus psychological dimensions of adversity.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2025

Patterns of brain-wide associations reflect socioeconomics

Previous brain-wide association studies (BWAS) cross-sectionally linked a specific behavioral trait, most commonly IQ or psychopathology, to variation in brain function or structure. Here, we expanded the focus of BWAS from effect sizes to interpretability and generalizability by mapping 649 variables to brain function and structure. We compared the resultant BWAS maps to other types of brain data to annotate the BWAS patterns. Socioeconomic status (SES) -- not IQ or psychopathology -- showed the strongest associations with both resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) and cortical thickness in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. A principal exposome brain pattern, anchored to sensory and motor cortex, captured 34% of the variance across all BWAS maps. This exposome pattern was strongly correlated with the SES and IQ BWAS maps and non-BWAS maps of sleep (EEG), norepinephrine (PET), and stimulants (drug trial), but not cognitive activation maps (task fMRI). Adjusting for SES, reduced brain-IQ associations by 40%. Brain with IQ associations did not generalize, as they could no longer be detected in subsamples drawn from only higher SES backgrounds, while brain with SES associations remained strong in higher-IQ-only subsamples. These findings reveal SES as the principal axis of population-level brain variation, possibly stemming from the sleep deprivation and heightened stress associated with lower SES, since socioeconomics can only indirectly affect the brain.

neuroscience↗