Prenatal Zika Virus Exposure Alters the Interaction Between Affective Processing and Decision-Making in Juvenile...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Infectious Disease

Background:

• Pregnancy challenges, including viral infections like Zika virus (ZIKV), can impact fetal brain development.
• The long-term effects of fetal ZIKV exposure on infant behavior and the brain's capacity for neural plasticity remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how fetal ZIKV exposure affects affective processing and decision-making in juvenile rhesus monkeys.
• To understand if neural plasticity can compensate for prenatal insults.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of rhesus monkey juveniles exposed to ZIKV prenatally and control subjects completed a judgment bias task.
• A negative mood induction procedure was administered to assess behavioral responses and decision-making changes.
• Decision-making processes and mood impact were compared between ZIKV-exposed and control groups.

Main Results:

• ZIKV exposure did not affect overall decision-making or behavioral responses to mood induction.
• Negative mood induction led to more conservative decision-making in control monkeys but not in ZIKV-exposed monkeys.
• Fetal ZIKV exposure altered the integration of affective information into decision-making.

Conclusions:

• Fetal ZIKV exposure impacts neural systems crucial for integrating emotion and cognition.
• These alterations may have long-term consequences for learning, memory, and emotion regulation in infants.
• The findings highlight the persistent effects of prenatal viral infections on neurodevelopment.