# 2/2 Optimizing access, engagement and assessment to elucidate prenatal influences on neurodevelopment: The Brains Begin Before Birth(B4 ) Midwest Consortium

> **NIH NIH R34** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $158,585

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY: The accelerating U.S. opioid crisis requires urgent scientific and public
health action. Maternal perinatal use/abuse is particularly deleterious due to its reverberating
intergenerational impact. Though prenatal exposure to opioids and other substances have
adverse effects on neurodevelopment, advances in neuroimaging and developmentally-
sensitive phenotypic measurement now enable characterization of typical and atypical brain-
behavior pathways on an unprecedented scale. Mechanistic study that traces the multi-level
determinants and patterns of risk and resilience from the prenatal period through childhood
requires a large, national cohort that accounts for regional and racial/ethnic variation. We
propose the Brains Begin Before Birth (B4) Midwest Consortium, a partnership of neuroscience,
substance use, perinatal mental health and child welfare scientists at Washington University
School of Medicine (WUSM) and neuroscience, bioethics, pediatric population health, maternal-
fetal and addiction scientists at Northwestern University (NU). Along with scientific
complementarity, a strength of this regional Consortium is its ability to leverage the contrasting
approaches of Illinois (punitive) and Missouri (non-punitive) to prenatal opioid use, providing an
exceptional platform for examining the impact of jurisdictional variations on science and
practice. Together we provide a framework for addressing three major areas of challenge key to
a high-quality, representative, national multi-site study: (1) Legal/Ethical: Led by NU bioethics
and population health experts, we propose a mixed methods approach to delineating barriers
and generating solutions to scientific engagement of opioid using pregnant women from varied
jurisdictions; (2) Recruitment/Retention: Led by NU experts in behavioral economics
approaches to research participation and WUSM experts in care coordination, child welfare and
mobile technology, we use innovative methods to test differential effectiveness of messaging in
recruitment materials using eye tracking, and employ novel apps and care coordination methods
for retention enhancement; and (3) Imaging/Assessment Methods: Led by neuroscience and
substance use experts at WUSM and an NU data scientist, we generate best practices
recommendations for an informed protocol via: (i) pilot testing a comprehensive pre-/perinatal
maternal substance/mental health protocol; (ii) obtaining feasibility data on MRI scans in
neonatal abstinence syndrome, also testing other developmental imaging modalities (e.g., EEG,
fNIRS), including in community settings; and (iii) applying state-of-the-art epidemiologic risk
prediction methods to extant Consortium data to identify methods and timing of key
assessments that provide added predictive value. All activities draw on extensive community
stakeholder partnerships. Our central focus is the prenatal-early childhood period, with a
framework designed to enable meaningful contributions to cons...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10148206
- **Project number:** 3R34DA050266-01S2
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** LAUREN S WAKSCHLAG
- **Activity code:** R34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $158,585
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-09-30 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10148206

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10148206, 2/2 Optimizing access, engagement and assessment to elucidate prenatal influences on neurodevelopment: The Brains Begin Before Birth(B4 ) Midwest Consortium (3R34DA050266-01S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-29 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10148206. Licensed CC0.

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