Maternal gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) moderates the association between birth weight and (EEG) power in healthy term-age newborns

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) affects around 10% of pregnancies in the US and has been linked to neurodevelopmental sequalae in children. However, there is a paucity of studies investigating early life neural markers in GDM-exposed infants. This study examined the association of GDM on relative EEG power among infants approximately 30.16hours postnatal age among a diverse cohort of mother-infant dyads (45% Multiracial, 25% Black, 69% Hispanic or Latina). The final sample consisted of 101 healthy term-age infants (gestational age at birth Mage= 39.0 ± 0.95, 46.5% female), 44 with exposure to GDM. We did not observe a main effect of GDM on infant relative EEG power. Our post-hoc analyses revealed a significant interaction effect between GDM and infant birth weight on relative EEG power in AS in fifteen frequency bands-electrode regions. In stratified analyses, we observed increased birth weight was associated with increased relative theta EEG power and decreased relative beta and gamma EEG power across multiple electrode regions among GDM-exposed infants whereas we observed the opposite pattern in infants without exposure to GDM. In non-GDM exposed infants, increased birth weight was associated with decreased relative theta EEG power and increased relative beta and gamma EEG power across multiple electrode regions. Our findings suggest that alterations in fetal body composition may represent one pathway by which GDM is associated with adverse child neurodevelopmental outcomes even among healthy mother-infant dyads.