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

• In Event: 1-206 - Early life exposure to unpredictable maternal signals influences child development: A cross species approach.

Integrative Statement

Across species maternal care is a key source of environmental sensory signals to 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 and animals. However, the fundamental properties of maternal signals that promote advantageous versus pathological outcomes in the offspring remain poorly understood. Experimental animal research demonstrates that patterns of maternal sensory input to the pup profoundly impact the developing brain. We test a hypothesis that predictability of maternal sensory signals during infancy will impact trajectories of neurodevelopment from 1 year of age through adolescence. In this prospective, longitudinal study, participants were 192 mothers and their children (91 female, 101 male). Mothers were video-recorded interacting with their infants in a semi-structured 10-minute play episode at 6 and 12 months. Maternal behaviors, which provide auditory, visual, or tactile sensory signals to the infant were coded continuously using The Observer XT. To quantify the extent to which sequences of maternal sensory signals were predictable, we focused on the conditional probabilities of transitioning between sensory signals. 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. Unpredictable, or fragmented, sequences of maternal sensory signals to the infant are characterized by high entropy rate. We found that infant exposure to Sensory Fragmentation was related to general cognitive function, memory, effortful control/executive function, and depressive symptoms in childhood and adolescence. Specifically, increased levels of Sensory Fragmentation predicted lower scores on the Mental Development Index (MDI) of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development at 2 years of age (r = -.34, p < .001) and verbal recall (WRAML) at 6.5 years of age (r = -.27, p < .05). Infant exposure to Sensory Fragmentation further predicted low effortful control assessed at 3 time points from infancy through early adolescence (1, 5, and 9.5 years) using mother report (Infant, Child, and Middle Childhood Behavior Questionnaires) (r’s = -0.16 to -0.21, p’s< .05) and behavioral assessments at 6.5 years (computerized Flanker task) (r = -.34, p < .01). Finally, we see that in early adolescence (12 years) higher Sensory Fragmentation was associated with lower effortful control (Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire), as well as elevated child depressive symptoms assessed with the Child Depression Inventory (r = 0.32, p <. 01). Notably, higher Sensory Fragmentation significantly predicted these outcomes after inclusion of a wide range of covariates including maternal depressive symptoms, maternal age, maternal sensitivity and SES. Animal models, discussed in this symposium, provide strong evidence that the structure and predictability of the sensory signals received from the mother during early development play a critical role in neural, emotional, and cognitive development. The current study explores these principles in human offspring and provides direct, prospective evidence that predictability of maternally sensory input to the infant may influence the developing brain with implications for child cognitive and emotional development.

Authors

• Amanda Narona, Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, CO
  Presenting Author

• Brian Vegetabile, Department of Statistics, University of California, Irvine, CA
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hal Stern, 2Department of Statistics, University of California, Irvine, CA
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elysia Poggi Davis, University of Denver, University of California-Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author