The Significance of Mothers’ Neural Responding to Infant Distress for Sensitive Caregiving

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

Integrative Statement

Mothers’ cognitive processing of infant distress is thought to organize sensitive caregiving (Fuths et al., 2017; Leerkes et al., 2016). A useful tool for investigating cognitive processing of stimuli is event-related potentials (ERPs) because they index specific stages of cognition (Luck, 2005). Indeed, mothers’ ERPs to infant distressed expressions distinguished neglectful mothers from controls (Rodrigo et al., 2011) and were associated with sensitivity in CPS referred mothers (Bernard et al., 2015). However, it remains unclear whether ERP responses to infant distress are implicated in caregiving behavior in normal populations. Moreover, the specificity of mothers’ ERP responses to infant distress for caregiving in specific contexts (e.g., distressing versus non-distressing) has not been examined. Thus, we examined the significance of mothers’ ERP responding to their infant’s distressed facial expressions for observed sensitivity when interacting with infants in (non)distressing contexts. We specifically focused on the P300 component because it reflects attention allocation, and selective attention to infant distress is arguably integral to prompt and appropriate responding, key aspects of sensitivity.

Mothers (N=104) of 6-month-old infants completed an oddball task comprising 160 trials of images of their infant displaying distressed (25% of trials), happy (25%), or neutral (50%) facial expressions. Mothers pressed a button in response to the distressed image. Mothers’ electrophysiological activity at the Pz electrode was averaged for the distressed, happy, and neutral images, respectively, and the P300 amplitude was estimated as the largest positive value between 300-500 ms post stimulus onset. Maternal sensitivity was examined in the Still-Face Procedure (SFP) and free play. The reunion episode of the SFP served as the distressing context, as mothers are tasked with re-engaging infants in normal interaction following a distressing social disruption in which mothers were emotionally and behaviorally unresponsive to infants. Infant negative mood during reunion was used as a control. The free play served as the non-distressing context.

The association between P300 amplitude and maternal sensitivity was analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling to account for the nested structure of data. Infant emotion (distressed, neutral, happy) was entered as a within-person factor at level 1, sensitivity as a between-person factor at level 2, and the cross level interaction was entered. Separate models were run for sensitivity in distressing and non-distressing contexts. As expected, sensitivity during SFP reunion and infant emotion significantly interacted in predicting P300 amplitude (see Table 1). Mothers rated higher (vs. lower) on sensitivity during reunion exhibited a heightened P300 amplitude to images of their infant displaying a distressed facial expression (see Figure 1). As expected, maternal sensitivity during free play was not significantly associated with mothers’ P300 amplitude to their infant’s distressed expression.

Findings indicate that mothers’ neural processing of their infant’s distressed expressions is differentially associated with sensitivity within distressing (vs. non-distressing) contexts. Specifically, mothers who exhibited a heightened P300 amplitude—reflective of heightened attention—to their infant’s distressed expressions responded more sensitively to their infant in a distressing context. Such evidence suggests that heightened attention to infant distress facilitates prompt and appropriate responding in challenging caregiving situations.

Authors

• Ashley Groh, University of Missouri
  Presenting Author

• Nanxi Xu, University of Missouri-Columbia
  Non-Presenting Author