Poster #14 - Developmental Origins and Temperamental Correlates of Neural Reactivity to Novelty Among 7-Month-Olds: An ERP Study

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Biological Processes: Neuroscience and Genetics

Integrative Statement

The developing brain is susceptible to early exposure to dysregulated maternal mood. Surprisingly little is known about whether prenatal exposure to maternal mood becomes biologically embedded to affect functioning of an infant’s brain. The negative central (NC) component is a face-sensitive event-related potential (ERP)—or time-locked electrophysiological response—associated with novelty processing in infancy (de Haan, 2007). Evoked NC amplitude to novel faces may serve as an embedded neural signature of sensitivity to the early environment that manifests behaviorally as fearfulness. This study investigates the prenatal maternal origins and temperamental correlates of novelty processing in the infant brain. We hypothesized that infants who showed greater neural reactivity to novelty would have been exposed to elevated maternal mood prenatally, and would exhibit greater fearfulness.

Families are part of an ongoing study examining how maternal mood exposure affects infant regulatory development (expected N = 162). Mothers reported on prenatal mood via Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer, 2004), Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale (Radloff, 1977), Pregnancy-Specific Anxiety scale (Rini et al., 1999), and Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983), along with infant temperament at 7-months via the Infant Behavioral Questionnaire-Revised Short Form (Gartstein et al., 2013). EEG was recorded at 32 scalp sites. Using concurrent eye-tracking, trials were initiated when an infant was fixating at the center of a screen (500ms). A face stimulus was then presented (500ms), followed by a white screen (1000ms). Infants viewed 4 conditions: happy, fearful, and neutral human faces, or monkey faces. While the same human face was repeated for each emotion, we used 30 monkey faces to elicit a novelty response. Trials were re-administered if an infant’s gaze fell outside the stimulus presentation region for more than 25% of a trial. EEG was segmented starting 200ms before stimulus presentation and continuing 1000ms post-presentation. Epoched EEG trials with artifacts were removed from subsequent analyses. On average, infants viewed 67 faces. NC amplitude to monkey faces relative to a neutral human face within a time window of 300-700ms was used as an index of neural reactivity to novelty.

Preliminary correlations are based on ERP data from 25 infants. 7-month-olds exhibited larger amplitude to monkey faces relative to affective human faces (Figure 1). Neural reactivity to novelty significantly predicted infant fearfulness, = .44 p = .03 (Figure 2). Prenatal maternal mood variables were not related to infant novelty processing (r’s = -.01-.11, p’s = .63-.98).

Findings suggest that novelty processing is an early-emerging neural signature of sensitivity to the environment, as shown by its association with infant fearfulness, a behavioral profile indicative of differential susceptibility to caregiving quality (Slagt et al., 2016). The origins of this signature, however, remain opaque. Final analysis with the full sample will test whether the association between prenatal exposure to maternal mood and infant fearfulness differs as a function of heightened novelty processing. Ultimately, findings may shed light on how early exposure to maternal mood affects functional development of infant cognition and behavior for certain children but not others.

Authors

• Brendan Ostlund, University of Utah
  Presenting Author

• David Alonso, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lauren H. Williams, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sheila Crowell, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elisabeth Conradt, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Trafton Drew, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author