# Prenatal Pathways for Poverty’s Influence on the Brains of Two Generations

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF DENVER (COLORADO SEMINARY) · 2022 · $503,013

## Abstract

Many studies, including some by the PI, reveal that cumulative risk - simultaneous exposure to multiple
environmental, psychological, and biological risks - resulting from poverty leads to pervasive emotional and
physical health problems as early as infancy. However, there remains a critical knowledge gap as to whether
the effects of poverty and cumulative risk originate before birth. We propose that prenatal exposure to
cumulative risk is a key pathway by which the adverse effects of poverty are transmitted to fetuses during
gestation. Moreover, this prenatal exposure to cumulative risk may also perturb a mother’s neural adaptation to
parenting, which further increases the infant’s likelihood of receiving harsh parenting postnatally. The proposed
study is innovative because it utilizes a unique intergenerational and prospective design. In a total of 200
pregnant women (110 low-income and 90 middle-income), cumulative prenatal risk will be assessed in each
trimester (12, 22, and 32 weeks gestation). Shortly after the infant’s birth, neuroimaging of the infant and the
mother will be performed to assess fetal brain development (using MRI, DTI, resting-state fMRI) and maternal
neural adaptation to parenting during pregnancy (using fMRI). The overall objective of the proposed study is to
identify the prenatal pathways by which poverty perturbs neural outcomes of two generations - infants and their
mothers. To achieve this objective, we will pursue three Aims. Aim#1 - Identify the relations between poverty
and cumulative prenatal risk. We propose that lower family income is associated with cumulative risk in
environmental (stressful life events, poor quality home environment), psychological (perceived stress, negative
mood) and biological (elevated cortisol, reduced oxytocin) systems during pregnancy. Aim#2 - Identify the
relations among poverty, cumulative prenatal risk, and brain morphology and connectivity in newborns. We
propose that lower family income is associated with reduced volume, white matter integrity, and functional
connectivity among the neural stress circuit of the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex among
newborns. Cumulative prenatal risk mediates the link between low income and newborn neural outcomes.
Aim#3 - Identify the relations among poverty, cumulative prenatal risk, and neural adaptation to parenting in
new mothers. We propose that cumulative prenatal risk mediates the links between family income and altered
neural function for parental motivation and emotion regulation among new mothers. The proposed research is
significant because it can offer scientific evidence to support prenatal intervention to reduce exposure to
cumulative risk among low-income pregnant women. Compared to postnatal interventions with either mothers
or infants, prenatal intervention is more effective and economical since it can potentially prevent poverty’s
adverse effects in both generations by intervening with mothers only, prenatally. Furthe...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10299602
- **Project number:** 5R01HD090068-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF DENVER (COLORADO SEMINARY)
- **Principal Investigator:** Pilyoung Kim
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $503,013
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-02-01 → 2023-10-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10299602

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10299602, Prenatal Pathways for Poverty’s Influence on the Brains of Two Generations (5R01HD090068-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10299602. Licensed CC0.

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