Evaluating the developmental consequences of infant exposure to unpredictable of maternal sensory signals

• In Event: Understanding the Impacts of Environmental Unpredictability and Volatility on Typical and Atypical Development

Abstract

Background: Across species, maternal care during early life profoundly influences the developing brain, and a vast body of work has linked quantitative and qualitative aspects of maternal care to cognitive and emotional outcome in children. However, the fundamental properties of maternal signals that promote advantageous versus pathological outcomes in the offspring remain poorly understood. Experimental animal research demonstrates that fragmented and unpredictable patterns of maternal sensory input to the pup leads to abnormal maturation of brain circuitry underlying executive function. Here, we test the hypothesis that the degree of predictability of maternal sensory signals during infancy will impact trajectories of neurodevelopment that in turn predict executive function across childhood and adolescence.

Methods: In this prospective and longitudinal study, participants included 192 mothers and their children (91 female, 101 male). Maternal behaviors, which provide auditory, visual, or tactile sensory signals to the infant were coded continuously during a semi-structured play episode with the infant. We applied a measure from information theory, entropy rate, to characterize the predictability of transitions among sensory signals that the mother provides to her infant. We investigated whether infant exposure to unpredictable maternal signals was associated with effortful control from childhood to adolescence. Using diffusion imaging, we then evaluated whether white matter structural connectivity within tracts critically important in executive functioning (e.g. cingulum, superior longitudinal fasciculus) mediated this relation.

Results: We found that infant exposure to unpredictable maternal signals predicts poorer effortful control across development. Infant exposure to unpredictable maternal signals predicted low effortful control assessed at three time points from infancy through early adolescence (1, 5 and 9.5 years) using mother report (Infant, Child, and Middle Childhood Behavior questionnaires; rs = -0.16 to -0.21, ps< .05), behavioral assessments at 6.5 years (computerized Flanker task; r = -.34, p < .01) and self-report assessment by the child at age 11 (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale; b= –0.75, t(126) = -2.02, p = 0.034). Analyses investigating the role of white matter structural integrity in mediating links between unpredictable maternal signals and effortful control/executive function across development are forthcoming.
Interpretation: The current study provides prospective evidence that predictability of maternal sensory input to the infant may influence the developing brain with implications for child executive function that persist into adolescence.

Authors

• Catherine H Demers, University of Denver
  Presenting Author

• Laura Glynn, Chapman University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Steven J Granger, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Curt Sandman, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hal Stern, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Michael Yassa, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tallie Z Baram, UC Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elysia Davis, University of Denver
  Non-Presenting Author