Maternal sensitivity and infant response to frustration: The moderating role of EEG asymmetry

Abstract

Two hundred and thirty-three 5-month-old infants and their mothers participated in a study designed to examine the influence of maternal sensitivity and infant neurophysiology, as well as interactions between these, on infants’ regulatory behavior and reactivity to emotional challenge. Maternal sensitivity was measured during two mother-child free-play episodes prior to the challenge task. Infant neurophysiology was derived from a measure of resting EEG asymmetry collected during a baseline episode. Infant regulatory behaviors (mother orienting and distraction) and reactivity to challenge (negative affect) were assessed during an arm restraint procedure. Maternal sensitivity predicted mother orienting behavior for all infants, regardless of baseline EEG asymmetry. Maternal sensitivity also predicted more distraction behaviors for infants with left frontal EEG asymmetry at baseline. In contrast, maternal sensitivity predicted more negative affect for infants with right frontal EEG asymmetry at baseline. These findings lend support for the hypothesis that maternal sensitivity and infant neurophysiological functioning interact to predict regulatory behavior and reactivity and are discussed in terms of the significance for understanding infant regulatory development in the first year of life.

Frontal asymmetry as a mediator and moderator of emotion: An updated review

“…Swingler, Perry, Calkins, and Ann () examined rLFA at rest in 233 5‐month‐old infants as a moderator of the relationship between maternal sensitivity and infant response to an emotional challenge task. During the emotional challenge task, mothers were asked to hold their infants' arms by their sides to restrict their movement, while maintaining a neutral facial expression.…”

Does maternal warmth moderate longitudinal associations between infant attention control and children's inhibitory control?

“…This executive attention system emerges at the end of the first year of life and is more volitional in nature than is early orienting (Colombo, Kapa, & Curtindale, ). As infants develop more control over attentional processes across the first year of life, they are more capable of appropriately deploying their attention; conversely, infants who are unable to disengage from a frustrating stimulus display both biological and behavioural markers of dysregulation, such as electroencephalogram asymmetry and negative affect (Swingler et al, ) and susceptibility to distress (Rothbart, Ziaie, & O'Boyle, ). In the long term, the inability to disengage in periods of frustration during infancy (i.e., express AC) has been associated with later developmental concerns (e.g., developmental disabilities and externalizing behaviour; Elsabbagh et al, ; Leve et al, ).…”

“…The development of IC is shaped by genetic influences (Engelhart, Briley, Mann, Harden, & Tucker-Drob, 2015;Gagne & Saudino, 2016), early attention control (AC; Cuevas & Bell, 2014;Swingler, Perry, Calkins, & Bell, 2014), and early parenting (Bernier, Carlson, & Whipple, 2010). Specifically, warm parenting is hypothesized to shape early development by facilitating healthy cognitive and regulatory development (Cabrera, Fagan, Wight, & Schadler, 2011;Mills-Koonce et al, 2015) and may thus serve as a protective factor for children at risk for low IC.…”

Neurohormones and temperament interact during infant development

“…Newborn infants can regulate themselves through what are believed to be reflexive behaviours, such as gaze aversion, rudimentary motor skills such as head turning, crying and sucking [31], yet may also use crying as a means of signalling the carer to aid in regulation [32]. In many infants, primitive self-regulation over arousal state and emotional reactivity begins to emerge by three months of age [33], with more control and stability developing over time as infants are better able to regulate arousal [34], control attention and motor function so as to visually orient to or disengage from stimuli [35] and/or to engage in joint attention [36]. Infants vary immensely in regulatory ability, and self-skill at regulation evolves through interaction with environment and carers [37].…”