Relationship Between Maternal Sensitivity During Early Interaction and Maternal Ability in Perceiving Infants' Body and Face

A multilevel Bayesian meta-analysis of the body inversion effect: Evaluating controversies over headless and sexualized bodies

Face and body perception rely on specialized processing mechanisms to interpret social information efficiently. The body inversion effect (BIE), refers to an inversion effect for bodies, such that recognition of bodies is impaired by inversion. The BIE, like the face inversion effect (FIE), is particularly important because a disproportionate BIE relative to inversion effects for objects could be interpreted in much the same way as the disproportionate FIE has often been characterized; that is, as evidence of specialized, configural processing. However, research supporting the BIE is marked by methodological heterogeneity and mixed findings. Our multilevel Bayesian meta-analysis addresses inconsistencies in the literature by pooling data from numerous studies to estimate the magnitude of the BIE across various methodological and stimulus properties. We included 180 effect sizes from 41 empirical articles representing data from 2,274 participants. Overall, we found that the BIE was moderate-large in magnitude (Hedges' g = 0.75). Importantly, the inversion effect was larger for bodies than objects (b = 0.42); however, the inversion effect for faces was larger than for bodies (b = 0.34). We tested the role of discrimination dimension, stimulus type, face/head inclusion, stimulus sexualization, and sexualized stimulus sex as moderators of the BIE. We found that the BIE was moderated by discrimination dimension, stimulus type, stimulus sexualization, and sexualized stimulus sex. By synthesizing the existing literature, we provide a better theoretical understanding of how underlying visual processing mechanisms may differ for different types of social information (i.e., bodies vs. faces).

Self or (M)other? Infants' Sensitivity to Bodily Overlap With Their Mother Reflects Their Dyadic Coordination

Adults experience greater self-other bodily overlap in romantic than platonic relationships. One of the closest relationships is between mother and infant, yet little is known about their mutual bodily representations. This study measured infants' sensitivity to bodily overlap with their mother. Twenty-one 6- to 8-month-olds watched their mother's face or a stranger's face being stroked synchronously versus asynchronously with their own face. Infants preferred synchrony only when viewing their mother, not when viewing the stranger. Infants who strongly preferred synchrony with their mother also experienced less coordination with her in naturalistic interactions. Infants thus appear sensitive to bodily overlap with their mother, and this overlap reflects dyadic coordination, supporting theoretical accounts of intersubjectivity in the development of the bodily self.

The body comes first. Embodied reparation and the co-creation of infant bodily-self

During infancy relational experiences of body-to-body exchanges (i.e., embodied interactions) contribute to the infant's bodily perception. Early embodied interactions are based on countless multimodal reciprocal exchanges, in which mother and infant contribute to interpersonal rhythmic cycles of co-regulation (i.e., attunement). However, it remains unclear how infants and their mothers actually accomplish attunement in their exchanges. Interactions between mothers and their infants typically fluctuate between attuned and misattuned states and recovery attunement states by a process called 'reparation'. Here, we discuss recent neuroscientific evidence that provides insight into the mechanisms underpinning the concepts of attunement and misattunement in early embodied interactions. We propose that a process of embodied reparation might be achieved within the dyad through tactile contact behaviors (e.g., skin-to-skin, affectionate touch) and maternal interoceptive sensitivity (i.e., ability to perceive internal input about the state of one's own body). We describe how these elements that mothers provide during embodied interactions with their infants, might contribute not only to bodily attunement, but also to co-create the infant bodily-self.

Early Brain Damage Affects Body Schema and Person Perception Abilities in Children and Adolescents with Spastic Diplegia

Early brain damage leading to cerebral palsy is associated to core motor impairments and also affects cognitive and social abilities. In particular, previous studies have documented specific alterations of perceptual body processing and motor cognition that are associated to unilateral motor deficits in hemiplegic patients. However, little is known about spastic diplegia (SpD), which is characterized by motorial deficits involving both sides of the body and is often associated to visuospatial, attentional, and social perception impairments. Here, we compared the performance of a sample of 30 children and adolescents with SpD (aged 7-18 years) and of a group of age-matched controls with typical development (TD) at two different tasks tapping on body representations. In the first task, we tested visual and motor imagery abilities as assessed, respectively, by the object-based mental rotation of letters and by the first-person transformations for whole-body stimuli. In the second task, we administered an inversion effect/composite illusion task to evaluate the use of configural/holistic processing of others' body. Additionally, we assessed social perception abilities in the SpD sample using the NEPSY-II battery. In line with previously reported visuospatial deficits, a general mental imagery impairment was found in SpD patients when they were engaged in both object-centered and first-person mental transformations. Nevertheless, a specific deficit in operating an own-body transformation emerged. As concerns body perception, while more basic configural processing (i.e., inversion effect) was spared, no evidence for holistic (i.e., composite illusion) body processing was found in the SpD group. NEPSY-II assessment revealed that SpD children were impaired in both the theory of mind and affect recognition subtests. Overall, these findings suggested that early brain lesions and biased embodied experience could affect higher-level motor cognition and perceptual body processing, thus pointing to a strict link between motor deficits, body schema alterations, and person processing difficulties.

Maternal nurturing experience affects the perception and recognition of adult and infant facial expressions

The perception and recognition of facial expressions are crucial for parenting. This study investigated whether and how maternal nurturing experience and trait anxiety influence the perception and recognition of infant and adult facial expressions. This was assessed by comparing the performance of primiparous mothers (n = 25) and non-mothers (n = 28) on an emotional face perception task. Trait anxiety was measured using the Japanese version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). We found that mothers had higher recognition accuracy for facial expressions, but only of adults, not infants. Moreover, as trait anxiety increased, so did mothers’ sensitivity in perceiving facial expressions of both infants and adults. These findings suggest that maternal nurturing experience does enhance the recognition of adult emotional expressions, and an optimal level of maternal trait anxiety may enhance mothers’ sensitivity toward infants’ and adults’ emotional signals.

Visual perception and spatial transformation of the body in children and adolescents with brain tumor

Representations of own and others' body play a crucial role in social interaction. While extensive knowledge has been gathered on the neuropsychological deficits affecting body representation in adult brain lesion patients, little is known on how acquired damage to a developing brain may affect this process. We tested it on pediatric brain tumor survivors, comparing the abilities of 30 children and adolescents (aged 8-16 years) surviving from a supratentorial tumor (STT) or an infratentorial tumor (ITT) in two different tasks of body representation. Thirty children with typical development (TD) served as control group. In the first task, we tested configural (body inversion effect) and holistic (composite illusion effect) processing of others' bodies. In the second task, we tested the ability to perform first-person and object-based mental spatial transformations of own body and external objects, respectively. Configural processing was spared in all patients. Conversely, ITT, but not STT patients, were impaired in the holistic processing of body stimuli. STT patients performed overall worse than both controls and ITT patients at mental spatial transformations of both own body and external objects. ITT children presented selective alteration in using the first-person transformation strategies with body stimuli. Results suggest that body-representation abilities may be heavily affected in pediatric brain tumor survivors. STTs may be associated to greater difficulties in mental visuo-spatial transformation abilities, likely reflecting damage to fronto-parietal circuits. Conversely, ITTs may be associated to specific disturbances of visual body perception abilities that require motor simulation processes, reflecting direct or indirect damage to cerebellar areas.

Maternal sensitivity is associated with configural processing of infant's cues in preterm and full-term mothers

BACKGROUND

Prematurity may affect mother-infant bonding and alter maternal sensitivity to infant's cues. Efficient perception of infants' facial and bodily cues is a crucial aspect of maternal sensitivity and may be challenged by prematurity, as infants' signals may not be easily intelligible. However, it is still unexplored how premature birth impacts the maternal ability to perceive infants' signals.

AIMS

To investigate whether prematurity influences the perceptual sensitivity of mothers to infants' cues and, in particular, the configural processing of the faces and bodies of familiar and unfamiliar infants.

STUDY DESIGN

The inversion effect paradigm was used to evaluate the configural vs. detail-based processing of the face and body of own or others' infants. Preterm mothers were compared to full-term mothers with either low or high maternal sensitivity.

PARTICIPANTS

Forty-three healthy full-term and twenty-one preterm mothers of infants aged about six months.

OUTCOME MEASURES

Maternal sensitivity during dyadic interaction, gestational age, accuracy and reaction time in a delayed matching-to-sample task of upright vs. inverted body and face stimuli (i.e., inversion effect).

RESULTS

Preterm mothers were found to be less sensitive than the full-term ones. Higher maternal sensitivity during dyadic interaction was associated with lower inversion effect for unfamiliar as compared to own infants' bodies. However, preterm mothers and full-term mothers with low sensitivity showed comparable inversion effect in perceiving unfamiliar infants' faces or bodies.

CONCLUSIONS

Preterm birth per se does not directly affect body configural processing, but it may be associated to reduced maternal sensitivity, ultimately leading to a less refined perception of own infant's cues.