EEG during different emotions in 10-month-old infants of depressed mothers

Abstract

EEG activity of 10-month-old infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers was compared during stimuli designed to produce happy and sad responses. During a baseline recording and during their happy facial expressions, infants of depressed mothers showed greater relative right frontal EEG asymmetry compared to infants of non-depressed mothers. The greater relative right frontal EEG asymmetry was also noted during a play interaction with their mothers. Infants of depressed mothers also showed more negative and less positive expressions. These findings are discussed in relation to the theory that frontal EEG activity may be a biological marker for symptoms associated with depression.The literature linking brain activity patterns (as measured by an electroencephalograph, EEG) and depressive symptoms suggests that asymmetric hemisphere activity of frontal regions of the brain is one potential marker for vulnerability to depression (Davidson, 1994(Davidson, , 1998. Specifically, greater right frontal EEG asymmetries, due to suppressed left hemisphere activity, are associated with a depressive style of behaviour.

Trajectories of maternal depression over 7 years: Relations with child psychophysiology and behavior and role of contextual risks

“…Whereas during infancy and in one prior study of preschool children children of depressed mothers were found to have relative right frontal EEG asymmetry compared to children of nondepressed mothers (Dawson et al, 1997;Jones et al, 2000;Jones, Field, Fox, Davalos, & Gomez, 2001;Jones et al, 1997Jones et al, , 1998, in this study, school-age children of depressed mothers were found to have reduced generalized frontal brain activation. Because so few studies have examined frontal brain activity in children of depressed mothers beyond infancy, the implications of this finding remain unclear.…”

Frontal alpha asymmetry as a pathway to behavioural withdrawal in depression: Research findings and issues

“…This finding is consistent whether EEG activity is measured during a resting state or during a task-related state. While some authors have proposed that brain activity and frontal asymmetry during emotional challenge is a more powerful indicator of predisposition toward psychopathology than brain activity at rest [61] and this position has been supported by data collected during cognitive and emotion eliciting/affective tasks [e.g., 62,63,64], other papers have reported that frontal asymmetry is not significantly related to the participants' mood reactivity and cognitive functions per se [e.g., 42,48,65]. Although there is some uncertainty regarding the association between frontal asymmetry and mood/cognitive activity to tasks, the overall conclusion is that frontal asymmetry can be demonstrated in depressed individuals at rest and while undertaking tasks which demand emotional and/or cognitive responses.…”

Variations in Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Children with Prenatal SSRI Antidepressant Exposure

“…In a study of habituation, an early measure of information processing in 3‐month old infants of depressed mothers discriminated sad from happy expressions; however, compared with control infants they did not seem to perceive sad expressions as novel (Hernandez‐Reif et al, ). Infants of depressed mothers had suppressed frontal electroencephalography activity in the left hemisphere in comparison to control infants (Jones et al, ). This frontal asymmetry was evident both during baseline condition and also during a happy situation (Jones et al, ), suggestive of associations between maternal depression and alterations in intrinsic brain activity and emotion perception.…”

“…Infants of depressed mothers had suppressed frontal electroencephalography activity in the left hemisphere in comparison to control infants (Jones et al, ). This frontal asymmetry was evident both during baseline condition and also during a happy situation (Jones et al, ), suggestive of associations between maternal depression and alterations in intrinsic brain activity and emotion perception.…”