arXiv2026
Prenatal maternal distress has been associated with differences in offspring brain and behavioural development, but is rarely framed computationally. Predictive-processing (PP) accounts propose that perception, cognition, and action arise from interactions between input and internally generated predictions, partly governed by precision. We reappraised eleven publications from two non-clinical prospective cohorts, selected using prespecified criteria, to assess whether they form a coherent PP-compatible developmental pattern. Eight Leuven publications spanned adolescence to adulthood. Externally cued response inhibition showed no detectable group differences in modestly powered samples, whereas differences emerged when task goals, stimulus relevance, expected outcomes, and response policies had to be generated or maintained endogenously. At age 28, higher prenatal anxiety was associated with lower radial and mean diffusivity in the left superior posterior corona radiata, lower Vocabulary scores, weaker medial prefrontal-left inferior frontal and prefrontal-left supramarginal gyrus connectivity, and greater unpleasantness of induced dyspnoea. In three Tilburg ERP publications (infancy and early childhood), higher prenatal anxiety was associated with increased processing of repeated standard tones, fearful relative to happy vocalizations, and neutral rather than pleasant or unpleasant pictures. Maternal mindfulness showed the opposite association for the repeated standard. Across cohorts, findings were compatible with differences in how relevance and processing resources are allocated to predictable, threat-related, ambiguous, contextual, feedback-related, and bodily information. Because the publications did not estimate precision, prediction errors, or priors, this is a theory-guided, post-hoc reappraisal that generates discriminating hypotheses rather than a formal computational test.