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Maternal symptoms of depression and anxiety during the postpartum period moderate infants' neural response to emotional faces of their mother and of female strangers. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2022; 22:1370-1389. [PMID: 35799031 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-022-01022-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/17/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Affective exchanges between mothers and infants are key to the intergenerational transmission of depression and anxiety, possibly via adaptations in neural systems that support infants' attention to facial affect. The current study examined associations between postnatal maternal symptoms of depression, panic and social anxiety, maternal parenting behaviours, and infants' neural responses to emotional facial expressions portrayed by their mother and by female strangers. The Negative Central (Nc), an event-related potential component that indexes attention to salient stimuli and is sensitive to emotional expression, was recorded from 30 infants. Maternal sensitivity, intrusiveness, and warmth, as well as infant's positive engagement with their mothers, were coded from unstructured interactions. Mothers reporting higher levels of postnatal depression symptoms were rated by coders as less sensitive and warm, and their infants exhibited decreased positive engagement with the mothers. In contrast, postnatal maternal symptoms of panic and social anxiety were not significantly associated with experimenter-rated parenting behaviours. Additionally, infants of mothers reporting greater postnatal depression symptoms showed a smaller Nc to their own mother's facial expressions, whereas infants of mothers endorsing greater postnatal symptoms of panic demonstrated a larger Nc to fearful facial expressions posed by both their mother and female strangers. Together, these results suggest that maternal symptoms of depression and anxiety during the postpartum period have distinct effects on infants' neural responses to parent and stranger displays of emotion.
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Smith CG, Jones EJH, Wass SV, Jacobs D, Fitzpatrick C, Charman T. The effect of perinatal interventions on parent anxiety, infant socio‐emotional development and parent‐infant relationship outcomes: A systematic review. JCPP ADVANCES 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/jcv2.12116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Celia G. Smith
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London UK
| | | | | | | | | | - Tony Charman
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London UK
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Bowman LC, McCormick SA, Kane-Grade F, Xie W, Enlow MB, Nelson CA. Infants' neural responses to emotional faces are related to maternal anxiety. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2022; 63:152-164. [PMID: 33993507 PMCID: PMC9644832 DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.13429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Postnatal maternal anxiety is common (estimates as high as 40% prevalence) and is associated with altered mother-infant interactions (e.g., reduced maternal emotional expression and engagement). Neural circuitry supporting infants' face and emotion processing develops in their first year. Thus, early exposure to maternal anxiety may impact infants' developing understanding of emotional displays. We examine whether maternal anxiety is associated with individual differences in typically developing infants' neural responses to emotional faces. METHODS One hundred and forty two mother-infant dyads were assessed when infants were 5, 7, or 12 months old. Infants' electroencephalographic (EEG) data were recorded while passively viewing female happy, fearful, and angry faces. Three event-related potential (ERP) components, each linked to face and emotion processing, were evaluated: NC, N290, and P400. Infant ERP amplitude was related to concurrent maternal-report anxiety assessed with the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Trait form). RESULTS Greater maternal anxiety predicted more negative NC amplitude for happy and fearful faces in left and mid-central scalp regions, beyond covarying influences of maternal depression symptoms, infant negative emotionality, and infant age. CONCLUSIONS Postnatal maternal anxiety is related to infants' neural processing of emotional expressions. Infants of mothers endorsing high trait anxiety may need additional attentional resources to process happy and fearful faces (expressions less likely experienced in mother-infant interactions). Future research should investigate mechanisms underlying this association, given possibilities include experiential, genetic, and prenatal factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindsay C. Bowman
- Center for Mind and Brain and Department of Psychology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA,Correspondence to: Lindsay C. Bowman, Center for Mind and Brain at UC Davis, 267 Cousteau Place, Davis, CA, USA, 95616
| | - Sarah A. McCormick
- Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
| | - Finola Kane-Grade
- Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA
| | - Wanze Xie
- Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA,Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
| | - Michelle Bosquet Enlow
- Department of Psychiatry, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA,Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
| | - Charles A. Nelson
- Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA,Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA,Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA
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Chong LJ, Meyer A. Psychometric properties of threat-related attentional bias in young children using eye-tracking. Dev Psychobiol 2020; 63:1120-1131. [PMID: 33146915 DOI: 10.1002/dev.22053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2020] [Revised: 10/02/2020] [Accepted: 10/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Anxiety is one of the most common forms of child psychopathology associated with persistent impairment across the lifespan. Therefore, investigating mechanisms that underlie anxiety in early childhood may improve prevention and intervention efforts. Researchers have linked selective attention toward threat (i.e., attentional bias to threat) with the development of anxiety. However, previous work on attentional bias has used less reliable, reaction time (RT)-based measures of attention. Additionally, few studies have used eye-tracking to measure attentional bias in young children. In the present study, we investigated the psychometric properties of an eye-tracking measure of attentional bias in a sample of young children between 6- and 9-years-old and explored if trait and clinical anxiety were related to attentional biases to threat. Results showed good psychometric properties for threat and neutral attentional biases, comparable to those found in adult eye-tracking studies. Temperamental and clinical anxiety did not significantly relate to threat/neutral dwell time and attentional biases. The significance of these null findings was discussed in relation to existing developmental theories of attentional biases. Future studies should explore if temperamental or clinical anxiety prospectively predict threat attentional bias and the onset of anxiety in older children using a longitudinal design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lyndsey J Chong
- Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
| | - Alexandria Meyer
- Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
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Kataja EL, Karlsson L, Parsons CE, Pelto J, Pesonen H, Häikiö T, Hyönä J, Nolvi S, Korja R, Karlsson H. Maternal pre- and postnatal anxiety symptoms and infant attention disengagement from emotional faces. J Affect Disord 2019; 243:280-289. [PMID: 30253357 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.09.064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2018] [Revised: 08/22/2018] [Accepted: 09/16/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Biases in socio-emotional attention may be early markers of risk for self-regulation difficulties and mental illness. We examined the associations between maternal pre- and postnatal anxiety symptoms and infant attention patterns to faces, with particular focus on attentional biases to threat, across male and female infants. METHODS A general population, Caucasian sample of eight-month old infants (N = 362) were tested using eye-tracking and an attention disengagement (overlap) paradigm, with happy, fearful, neutral, and phase-scrambled faces and distractors. Maternal self-reported anxiety symptoms were assessed with the Symptom Checklist-90/anxiety subscale at five time points between gestational week 14 and 6 months postpartum. RESULTS Probability of disengagement was lowest for fearful faces in the whole sample. Maternal pre- but not postnatal anxiety symptoms associated with higher threat bias in infants, and the relation between maternal anxiety symptoms in early pregnancy and higher threat bias in infants remained significant after controlling for maternal postnatal symptoms. Maternal postnatal anxiety symptoms, in turn, associated with higher overall probability of disengagement from faces to distractors, but the effects varied by child sex. LIMITATIONS The small number of mothers suffering from very severe symptoms. No control for the comorbidity of depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Maternal prenatal anxiety symptoms associate with infant's heightened attention bias for threat. Maternal postnatal anxiety symptoms, in turn, associate with infant's overall disengagement probability differently for boys and girls. Boys may show enhanced vigilance for distractors, except when viewing fearful faces, and girls enhanced vigilance for all socio-emotional stimuli. Long-term implications of these findings remain to be explored.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eeva-Leena Kataja
- The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland; Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Finland.
| | - Linnea Karlsson
- The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland; Department of Child Psychiatry, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Finland
| | - Christine E Parsons
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus University, Denmark
| | - Juho Pelto
- The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland
| | - Henri Pesonen
- Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, Finland
| | - Tuomo Häikiö
- Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Finland
| | - Jukka Hyönä
- Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Finland
| | - Saara Nolvi
- The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland
| | - Riikka Korja
- The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland; Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Finland
| | - Hasse Karlsson
- The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Finland
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Aktar E, Bögels SM. Exposure to Parents' Negative Emotions as a Developmental Pathway to the Family Aggregation of Depression and Anxiety in the First Year of Life. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 2017; 20:369-390. [PMID: 28528457 PMCID: PMC5656709 DOI: 10.1007/s10567-017-0240-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Depression and anxiety load in families. In the present study, we focus on exposure to parental negative emotions in first postnatal year as a developmental pathway to early parent-to-child transmission of depression and anxiety. We provide an overview of the little research available on the links between infants' exposure to negative emotion and infants' emotional development in this developmentally sensitive period, and highlight priorities for future research. To address continuity between normative and maladaptive development, we discuss exposure to parental negative emotions in infants of parents with as well as without depression and/or anxiety diagnoses. We focus on infants' emotional expressions in everyday parent-infant interactions, and on infants' attention to negative facial expressions as early indices of emotional development. Available evidence suggests that infants' emotional expressions echo parents' expressions and reactions in everyday interactions. In turn, infants exposed more to negative emotions from the parent seem to attend less to negative emotions in others' facial expressions. The links between exposure to parental negative emotion and development hold similarly in infants of parents with and without depression and/or anxiety diagnoses. Given its potential links to infants' emotional development, and to later psychological outcomes in children of parents with depression and anxiety, we conclude that early exposure to parental negative emotions is an important developmental mechanism that awaits further research. Longitudinal designs that incorporate the study of early exposure to parents' negative emotion, socio-emotional development in infancy, and later psychological functioning while considering other genetic and biological vulnerabilities should be prioritized in future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evin Aktar
- Clinical Psychology Unit, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 127, 1001 NG, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
| | - Susan M Bögels
- Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 127, 1001 NG, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Attentional bias towards and away from fearful faces is modulated by developmental amygdala damage. Cortex 2016; 81:24-34. [PMID: 27173975 PMCID: PMC4962776 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.04.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2015] [Revised: 01/19/2016] [Accepted: 04/10/2016] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
The amygdala is believed to play a major role in orienting attention towards threat-related stimuli. However, behavioral studies on amygdala-damaged patients have given inconsistent results-variously reporting decreased, persisted, and increased attention towards threat. Here we aimed to characterize the impact of developmental amygdala damage on emotion perception and the nature and time-course of spatial attentional bias towards fearful faces. We investigated SF, a 14-year-old with selective bilateral amygdala damage due to Urbach-Wiethe disease (UWD), and ten healthy controls. Participants completed a fear sensitivity questionnaire, facial expression classification task, and dot-probe task with fearful or neutral faces for spatial cueing. Three cue durations were used to assess the time-course of attentional bias. SF expressed significantly lower fear sensitivity, and showed a selective impairment in classifying fearful facial expressions. Despite this impairment in fear recognition, very brief (100 msec) fearful cues could orient SF's spatial attention. In healthy controls, the attentional bias emerged later and persisted longer. SF's attentional bias was due solely to facilitated engagement to fear, while controls showed the typical phenomenon of difficulty in disengaging from fear. Our study is the first to demonstrate the separable effects of amygdala damage on engagement and disengagement of spatial attention. The findings indicate that multiple mechanisms contribute in biasing attention towards fear, which vary in their timing and dependence on amygdala integrity. It seems that the amygdala is not essential for rapid attention to emotion, but probably has a role in assessment of biological relevance.
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Characterizing the association between parenting and adolescent social phobia. J Anxiety Disord 2012; 26:608-16. [PMID: 22445318 DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2012.02.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2011] [Revised: 02/14/2012] [Accepted: 02/15/2012] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES For characterizing the association between parenting and offspring social phobia (SP), contrasting maternal vs. paternal contributions, putative predictors of unfavorable parenting behaviors and its specificity for SP are warranted to delineate targeted prevention and intervention strategies. METHODS A population-based sample of 1053 adolescents was followed-up using the M-CIDI. Parenting was assessed via questionnaire in offspring passing the high risk period for SP-onset. Natal complications and childhood serious health problems as assessed by maternal reports were hypothesized to relate to unfavorable parenting. RESULTS The pattern of maternal overprotection, paternal rejection and lower emotional warmth was associated with SP, but not with other offspring anxiety disorders. Natal complications were related to overprotection and lower emotional warmth; trend-level associations emerged for serious health problems and unfavorable parenting. CONCLUSIONS Paternal behavior appears particularly relevant for SP. The pattern of maternal overprotection, paternal rejection and lower emotional warmth was observed in SP only, suggesting that its detailed assessment provides a promising opportunity for targeted prevention and intervention in SP.
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Is there room for 'development' in developmental models of information processing biases to threat in children and adolescents? Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 2011; 13:315-32. [PMID: 20811944 DOI: 10.1007/s10567-010-0078-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Clinical and experimental theories assume that processing biases in attention and interpretation are a causal mechanism through which anxiety develops. Despite growing evidence that these processing biases are present in children and, therefore, develop long before adulthood, these theories ignore the potential role of child development. This review attempts to place information processing biases within a theoretical developmental framework. We consider whether child development has no impact on information processing biases to threat (integral bias model), or whether child development influences information processing biases and if so whether it does so by moderating the expression of an existing bias (moderation model) or by affecting the acquisition of a bias (acquisition model). We examine the extent to which these models fit with existing theory and research evidence and outline some methodological issues that need to be considered when drawing conclusions about the potential role of child development in the information processing of threat stimuli. Finally, we speculate about the developmental processes that might be important to consider in future research.
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Gaze avoidance in social phobia: objective measure and correlates. Behav Res Ther 2009; 48:147-51. [PMID: 19863948 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2009.09.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 96] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2009] [Revised: 08/31/2009] [Accepted: 09/30/2009] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Gaze aversion could be a central component of the physiopathology of social phobia. The emotions of the people interacting with a person with social phobia seem to model this gaze aversion. Our research consists of testing gaze aversion in subjects with social phobia compared to control subjects in different emotional faces of men and women using an eye tracker. Twenty-six subjects with DSM-IV social phobia were recruited. Twenty-four healthy subjects aged and sex-matched constituted the control group. We looked at the number of fixations and the dwell time in the eyes area on the pictures. The main findings of this research are: confirming a significantly lower amount of fixations and dwell time in patients with social phobia as a general mean and for the 6 basic emotions independently from gender; observing a significant correlation between the severity of the phobia and the degree of gaze avoidance. However, no difference in gaze avoidance according to subject/picture gender matching was observed. These findings confirm and extend some previous results, and suggest that eye avoidance is a robust marker of persons with social phobia, which could be used as a behavioral phenotype for brain imagery studies on this disorder.
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Abstract
We present an integrative review of the development of child anxiety, drawing on a number of strands of research. Family aggregation and genetic studies indicate raised vulnerability to anxiety in offspring of adults with the disorder (e.g. the temperamental style of behavioural inhibition, or information processing biases). Environmental factors are also important; these include adverse life events and exposure to negative information or modelling. Parents are likely to be key, although not unique, sources of such influences, particularly if they are anxious themselves. Some parenting behaviours associated with child anxiety, such as overprotection, may be elicited by child characteristics, especially in the context of parental anxiety, and these may serve to maintain child disorder. Emerging evidence emphasizes the importance of taking the nature of child and parental anxiety into account, of constructing assessments and interventions that are both disorder specific, and of considering bidirectional influences.
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Affiliation(s)
- L Murray
- Winnicott Research Unit, School of Psychology, University of Reading, Reading, UK.
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