1-073 - The Neural Basis of Parenting: Event-Related Potentials and Maternal Behavior

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Parenting is rapid and intuitive, necessitating methods that optimize measurements of the temporal dynamics of the parent-child relationship in developmental science. Increasing attention has focused on the value of the event-related (ERP) technique to probe the maternal brain given its excellent temporal resolution (in the order of milliseconds). The purpose of this parenting-ERP symposium is to (1) showcase the innovative ERP approaches that have been utilized in this endeavor; and (2) introduce advances related to maternal brain-behavior associations and intervention research. The Chairs will begin by providing a brief overview of the ERP technique to familiarize the audience with this methodology. The first presenter will describe their findings from a meta-analysis of maternal ERP studies published to date, including ERP (N170, LPP/P300) associations with parenting quality. The second presenter will evidence associations between the P300 ERP component and maternal sensitivity measured during mother-infant interactions. Advancing this brain-behavior approach, the third presenter will describe their employment of early (P200) and late (LPP) ERP components to create neural profiles for mothers that predict observed behavioral sensitivity. The final presenter will demonstrate the modulation of ERPs (P1, N170, LPP) following maternal participation in a video-feedback intervention designed to promote parental sensitivity. Taken together, the varied methodological and statistical approaches of these papers (i.e., meta-analysis, behavioral coding, latent profile analysis, and experimental intervention design) will document the cutting-edge science of the application of ERPs to studying parenting and its critical role as a technique in developmental science.

Sub Unit

• Biological Processes: Neuroscience and Genetics

Chairs

• Helena JV Rutherford, Yale Child Study Center

• Kristin Bernard, Stony Brook University

Individual Presentations

• Processing Children’s Faces in the Parental Brain: A Meta-Analysis of ERP Studies - Presenting Author: Mikko J. Peltola, Tampere University; Non-Presenting Author: Marian J Bakermans-Kranenburg, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Non-Presenting Author: Renske Huffmeijer, Leiden University; Non-Presenting Author: Marinus H van IJzendoorn, Erasmus University Rotterdam

• The Significance of Mothers’ Neural Responding to Infant Distress for Sensitive Caregiving - Presenting Author: Ashley Groh, University of Missouri; Non-Presenting Author: Nanxi Xu, University of Missouri-Columbia

• Latent Profiles of Maternal Neural Response to Infant Emotional Stimuli: Associations with Maternal Sensitivity - Presenting Author: Sierra Kuzava, Stony Brook University; Non-Presenting Author: Allison Frost, Stony Brook University; Non-Presenting Author: Galia Nissim, Stony Brook University; Non-Presenting Author: Brady Nelson, Stony Brook University; Non-Presenting Author: Kristin Bernard, Stony Brook University

• Effects of a Video-Feedback Intervention to Promote Positive Parenting on Mothers’ Neural Processing of Children’s Facial Emotions - Presenting Author: Laura Kolijn, Leiden University; Non-Presenting Author: Renske Huffmeijer, Leiden University; Non-Presenting Author: Bianca van den Bulk, Leiden University; Non-Presenting Author: Marinus H van IJzendoorn, Erasmus University Rotterdam; Non-Presenting Author: Marian J Bakermans-Kranenburg, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam