Maternal anxiety shapes prediction error responses in the infant brain

Post-natal maternal anxiety affects a substantial proportion of new mothers, with prevalence rates reaching up to 34.2%.¹ Despite this, in the WHO European region, only 11 out of 53 countries offer any type of perinatal mental health treatment service, and only 10 countries have established perinatal mental health screening.² Postnatal maternal anxiety is associated with an increased risk of anxiety and emotional dysregulation in offspring,^3,4 yet the mechanisms underpinning this transmission remain incompletely understood.⁵ Although anxiety disorders have a moderate heritability ($\sim 30\%$ to 50%), twin studies suggested that genetic factors alone do not fully account for intergenerational transmission.³ Instead, genetic vulnerability may interact with early environmental influences to shape the development of anxiety-related traits. For example, children with a high polygenic risk for anxiety may be particularly sensitive to maternal emotional states, amplifying the effects of exposure to an unpredictable or threat-sensitive caregiving environment.⁶