Brain and personality bases of insensitivity to infant cues in neglectful mothers: An event-related potential study

Abstract

This investigation examined the neural and personality correlates of processing infant facial expressions in mothers with substantiated neglect of a child under 5 years old. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 14 neglectful and 14 control mothers as they viewed and categorized pictures of infant cries, laughs, and neutral faces. Maternal self-reports of anhedonia and empathy were also completed. Early (negative occipitotemporal component peaking at around 170 ms on the scalp [N170] and positive electrical potential peaking at about 200 ms [P200]) and late positive potential (LPP) components were selected. Both groups of mothers showed behavioral discrimination between the different facial expressions via reaction time and accuracy measures. Neglectful mothers did not exhibit increased N170 amplitude at temporal leads in response to viewing crying versus laughing and neutral expressions compared to control mothers. Both groups had greater P200 and LPP amplitudes at centroparietal leads in response to viewing crying versus neutral facial expressions. However, neglectful mothers displayed an overall attenuated brain response in LPP that was related to their higher scores in social anhedonia but not to their empathy scores. The ERP data suggest that the brain's failures in the early differentiation of cry stimuli and in the sustained processing of infant expressions related to social anhedonia may underlie the insensitive responding in neglectful mothers. The implications of these results for the design and evaluation of preventive interventions are discussed.

Neurobiology of culturally common maternal responses to infant cry

“…However, whether the action and speech are positive and growth-promoting or negative and harmful may depend on idiosyncratic characteristics of the caregiver. Using brain imaging, it may be possible to identify caregivers who are unaware or reluctant to disclose such risks (38). For example, depressed mothers compared with nondepressed mothers (129)(130)(131), and mothers who abuse drugs compared with mothers with no such dependencies (132), show altered brain involvement (subcortical limbic regions, prefrontal cortex including SMA, and superior temporal cortex) and altered behavior in response to negative emotions expressed by their own infants.…”

The neural basis of responsive caregiving behaviour: Investigating temporal dynamics within the parental brain

“…In the study of pregnant women, depressive symptomology was associated with decreased P300 responses to distressed infant faces, but with no effect for responses to happy or neutral faces or infant cry vocalisations [125]. Compared to healthy mothers, mothers who neglected their infants demonstrated reduced modulation of N170 responses to infant facial expressions and reduced LPP responses to crying compared to neutral expressions [97]. In contrast, neural markers indicative of heightened sensitivity to infant cues were observed in mothers with depressive and anxious symptoms.…”

“…Both intensity and valence of emotional expression were shown to affect the amplitude of P300 responses in one study (375-600 ms, [79]), although another study found no such difference in a comparable time window (300-450 ms, [78]). Two studies have demonstrated modulation of the late positive potential (LPP; 500-800 ms) by valence in infant cues [81,97]. Finally, larger N2 (250-300 ms) responses were demonstrated in response to infant faces compared to pre-pubertal child faces, which in turn had greater responses than that to adult faces [98], an effect which was subsequently localized to fusiform gyrus, anterior cingulate cortex and OFC.…”

Maternal anxiety and neural responses to infant faces

“…However, some studies report that infant expression modulates maternal N170 responses, with infant distress provoking the largest N170 amplitude (Proverbio et al, 2006;Rodrigo et al, 2011). These latter studies required categorization of infant affect following stimulus presentation.…”