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Poster #15 - Longitudinal Association Between Perinatal Maternal Internalizing Psychopathology and Children’s Delta-Beta Coupling

Thu, March 23, 4:15 to 5:00pm, Salt Palace Convention Center, Floor: 1, Hall A-B

Abstract

Maternal internalizing psychopathology (e.g., depression and anxiety) early in a child’s life has been associated with higher risk for externalizing and internalizing problems (Goodman et al., 2011; Monk et al., 2019). However, the effects of maternal internalizing psychopathology on children’s brain activity are poorly understood. Delta-Beta coupling is a neural marker theorized to represent regulatory processes such as emotion regulation, attentional, and inhibitory control (Brooker et al., 2016; Myruski et al., 2022). Given its proxy to regulatory processes, studies have examined the link between delta-beta coupling and internalizing problems and found that higher delta-beta coupling is associated with higher internalizing symptoms (e.g., anxiety; Brooker et al., 2021; Anaya et al., 2021; Knyazev, 2011; Miskovic et al., 2011). However, to our knowledge, no study to date has examined maternal psychopathology as a predictor of children’s delta-beta coupling. The present study examines the longitudinal association between perinatal maternal internalizing psychopathology and children’s delta-beta coupling.
Data from a large study of children (N=415; Meanage=7.27; Rangeage=5-11 years) were used to examine the association between early maternal psychopathology and children’s delta-beta coupling and internalizing problems. Maternal depression and anxiety symptoms were assessed in the perinatal period using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS; Cox et al., 1987) and the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger et al., 1983). Children’s delta/beta coupling was assessed from a 3-minute baseline electroencephalogram (EEG) recording collected as part of the EEG task at 5, 7 , 9, and 11 years of age. EEG data were pre-processed in MATLAB via procedures from the Maryland Analysis of Developmental EEG (MADE) pipeline (Debnath et al., 2020). Delta/beta correlations were analyzed using absolute power. Concurrent with the EEG assessment, mothers reported children’s internalizing problems using The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997).
Unexpectedly, results showed that higher perinatal maternal trait anxiety symptoms were associated with lower delta-beta coupling (low trait anxiety: r=0.44, high trait anxiety: r=0.27, Fisher’s r-to-z test, p=0.025). Moreover, perinatal maternal depression and state anxiety symptoms were not significantly associated with differences in children’s delta-beta coupling. As expected, children reported to have higher internalizing problems displayed increased delta-beta coupling (low internalizing: r=0.27, high internalizing: r=0.44, Fisher’s r-to-z test, p=0.045). These results support previous studies that found an association between increased data-beta coupling and risk for internalizing problems. Moreover, the direction of the association between perinatal maternal trait anxiety and children’s delta-beta coupling was surprising given that maternal psychopathology was associated with internalizing psychopathology risk in children. Future analyses will examine delta-beta coupling at the individual level (within-person) to further examine the associations between delta-beta coupling and early maternal internalizing psychopathology. Overall, these findings provide important information that further links delta-beta coupling with internalizing risk in children.

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