Psychophysiological characteristics of the regulatory disordered infant

Prenatal cocaine and other substance exposure: Effects on infant autonomic regulation at 7 months of age

“…Instead their RSA increased following the positive affect task and remained high throughout the remainder of the data collection procedure. The failure to suppress RSA in response to environmental challenge is consistent with previous findings that infants with regulatory disorders did not regulate (decrease) RSA from baseline to a task (DeGangi et al, 1991). Since other studies have indicated that there is a positive association between vagal regulation and both concurrent and future behavioral regulation during frustration (Calkins, 1997) and social tasks (Doussard-Roosevelt, Porges, Scanlon, Alemi, & Scanlon, 1997;Stifter & Corey, 2001;Suess & Bornstein, 2000), the findings of the current study suggest that infants who were exposed to cocaine may be at risk for less adaptive behavioral regulation during environmental challenges.…”

“…These findings are particularly significant when considering that one of the primary developmental tasks for infants is to cope with sensory challenges from the external environment as well as to adequately perform homeostatic processes in the presence of both endogenous and exogenous sources of stimulation (DeGangi, DiPietro, Greenspan, & Porges, 1991). During the first weeks of life, the immaturity of sensory systems buffers infants from external stimulation (Sroufe, 1979).…”

“…Optimally, the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems should act in concert such that when sympathetic arousal (measured by HR in this study) increases in response to environmental challenge, there should be a decrease in parasympathetic activity (measured by RSA). This negative change in RSA from baseline to environmental challenge is associated with more optimal state regulation in infancy (DeGangi et al, 1991), decreased behavior problems in preschool-aged children (Porges, Doussard-Roosevelt, Portales, & Greenspan, 1996), and more adaptive behavior during attention and affect eliciting tasks in both preschool and school-aged children (Calkins, 1997;Suess, Porges, & Plude, 1994), and during social approach (Stifter & Corey, 2001). Thus, the measurement of change in RSA from baseline to challenging situations is an important concurrent and predictive index of parasympathetic regulation in infants.…”

The Role of Sensory Modulation Deficits and Behavioral Symptoms in a Diagnosis for Early Childhood

“…This finding suggests that oscillations in the sensory thresholds of these children are higher compared with other child psychiatric diagnoses. This result is consistent with the first psychophysiological studies conducted using infants and young children with RD symptoms, in which different patterns of physiological reactivity were observed in relation to normally developing children [22,47]. The results of this study also agree with those of psychophysiological studies that have compared children who have sensory modulation dysfunction (SMD) with normally developing children, with findings such as a higher frequency and amplitude in skin conductance [15], different event-related potential patterns [14], and increased parasympathetic responses [16] with regard to task performance in children with SMD.…”

“…Although some studies have characterized RDSP symptoms [8,22] and defined its qualities with regard to other diagnoses [13], they used small sample sizes. Furthermore, although some of these studies have analyzed both the sensory and behavioral symptoms of RDSP [23], most have focused exclusively on one or the other.…”