Prenatal pathogen exposure and offspring neurohealth: Maternal immune activation and emerging paternal evidence in Toxoplasma gondii infection

Against a backdrop of global demographic change, optimizing early-life health has emerged as an urgent public health priority. Maternal infection with the neurotropic parasite Toxoplasma gondii ( T. gondii ) is a recognized cause of congenital disease, whereas evidence concerning paternal infection and offspring neurodevelopment remains preliminary. This review synthesizes clinical and experimental evidence on associations between parental T. gondii infection and offspring neuropsychiatric vulnerability. We emphasize maternal immune activation during pregnancy, which may disrupt fetal neurodevelopment through inflammatory and neuroendocrine pathways, and emerging paternal infection-associated molecular findings, for which sperm-mediated transmission and stable germline inheritance have not been established. By integrating epidemiological associations with mechanistic studies, we frame congenital toxoplasmosis and related parental exposures as multifactorial developmental concerns rather than evidence of a single confirmed transgenerational pathway. Causal effects on lifelong neurocognitive health remain uncertain, underscoring the need for improved risk assessment, prospective studies, and appropriately targeted follow-up.