Mothers with depressive symptoms display differential brain activations when empathizing with infant faces

Lenzi, Delia; Trentini, Cristina; Macaluso, Emiliano; Graziano, Sonia; Speranza, Anna Maria; Pantano, P.; Ammaniti, Massimo

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2016.01.019

Cited by 21 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…In depressed mothers, Wonch et al found that the unique amygdala response to positive pictures of one's own infant was blunted in comparison to non‐depressed mothers. These findings are in line with work from a number of other laboratories and suggest that, for human mothers, infant‐related amygdala engagement may be an important factor in maternal anxiety/depression, quality of mothering and/or in individual differences in the motivation to mother …”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…demonstrated a correlation between maternal sensitivity and brain function in the amygdala and frontal cortex in a sample of breastfeeding and formula‐feeding mothers. In addittion, recent studies have identified altered amygdala connectivity to downstream neuronal processes as a function of maternal depression and anxiety in response to infant cues. Furthermore, Guo et al found that anxiety mediated the relationship between measures of maternal behaviour and amygdala connectivity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We chose to examine the amygdala as a whole for comparison with the extensive work that uses this approach to examine the functional significance of the amygdala in MDD. Mean beta‐weights were extracted as parameter estimates from each region of interest (right and left amygdala) for each contrast and condition using the spm Marsbar toolbox and entered into spss , version 20 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) for statistical analyses …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Amygdala and affective responses to infant pictures: Comparing depressed and non‐depressed mothers and non‐mothers

Dudin

Wonch

Davis

et al. 2019

J Neuroendocrinology

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In many mammalian species, new mothers show heightened positive responsiveness to infants and their cues when they give birth. As is evident from non‐human and human studies, the amygdala is a brain region implicated in both the maternal and affective neural circuitry, and is involved in processing socioemotionally salient stimuli. In humans, infants are socially salient stimuli to women, and mothers in particular. Neuroimaging studies investigating the maternal response to infant cues have identified infant‐related amygdala function as an important factor in maternal anxiety/depression, in the quality of mothering and in individual differences in the motivation to mother. The present study investigated the effects of maternal status and depression on the subjective affective response and amygdala responsiveness to unfamiliar infants using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Smiling infant pictures were used in a 2 × 2 design comparing four groups of women: mothers and non‐mothers, with and without depression (total of 101 women: postpartum depression [PPD] = 32, non‐PPD = 25, major depression [MDD] = 15, non‐MDD = 29). We undertook an anatomically defined region of interest analysis of the amygdala response for a priori defined group comparisons. We found that mothers rated infants more positively than non‐mothers and non‐mothers rated non‐infant stimuli (scenery) more positively than mothers. In the amygdala, we found that depression elevated response to smiling unfamiliar infants in mothers but had no effect in non‐mothers. Within the depressed groups, mothers (PPD) showed an elevated amygdala response to unfamiliar smiling infants compared to depressed non‐mothers. Hence, our results indicate that women with PPD show an enhanced amygdala response to affectively positive infant pictures but not to affectively positive (but non‐salient) pictures of scenery. Women with depression outside of the postpartum period show no change in amygdala responsiveness to either stimulus categories.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Amygdala and affective responses to infant pictures: Comparing depressed and non‐depressed mothers and non‐mothers

Dudin

Wonch

Davis

et al. 2019

J Neuroendocrinology

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show abstract

“…For example, reduced amygdala reactivity to infant cries was observed in mothers with higher quality relationships with their infants [126]. Increased amygdala activity has been found in mothers with postnatal depression in response to positively-valenced infant face stimuli [both own and other infant faces; [127]], and to negatively or positively-valenced own infant faces [128] compared to healthy mothers. However, not all findings relating to the amygdala have been in the same direction.…”

Section: Altered Reactivity To Infant Cuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another study by the same authors, but focused on crying, reported that mothers with depression showed less activity to infant cries in frontal (OFC, prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices) and reward regions [nucleus accumbens ; 135]. Using a different paradigm involving observation and empathizing, another fMRI study again implicated the medial prefrontal cortex and OFC, reporting that maternal depression was associated with greater deactivation of these regions relative to 'rest' [128].…”

Section: Prefrontal Emotional Regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Young

Parsons

Stein

et al. 2017

Behavioural Brain Research

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Role of psychosocial risk factors in predicting maternal and paternal depressive symptomatology during pregnancy

Tambelli

Trentini

Trovato

et al. 2019

Infant Mental Health Journal

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The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of several psychosocial risk factors in predicting depressive symptomatology during pregnancy in mothers and fathers, respectively. A total of 146 primiparous mothers and 105 primiparous fathers reporting a psychosocial risk condition were recruited independently from maternity and child health services, during the second trimester of pregnancy. All parents were evaluated for depressive symptomatology, anxiety, and perceived social support. Two hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed to determine the role of psychosocial factors in predicting depressive symptomatology during pregnancy, in mothers and fathers. Marital dissatisfaction, personal history of depression, and personal trait anxiety were identified as significant predictors of depressive symptomatology during pregnancy, both in mothers and in fathers. Family history of substance abuse, conflictual relationship with the parents in the past year, and bereavement in the past year were identified as significant factors contributing to elevated depressive symptoms during pregnancy in mothers, but not fathers. In this study, several psychosocial risk factors were consistently related to an increase in maternal and paternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy; some of these factors seem to be specifically related to maternal depressive mood.

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Mothers with depressive symptoms display differential brain activations when empathizing with infant faces

Cited by 21 publications

References 59 publications

Amygdala and affective responses to infant pictures: Comparing depressed and non‐depressed mothers and non‐mothers

Amygdala and affective responses to infant pictures: Comparing depressed and non‐depressed mothers and non‐mothers

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

Role of psychosocial risk factors in predicting maternal and paternal depressive symptomatology during pregnancy

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