The significance of mothers' neural responding to infant emotional cues for caregiving behaviors : the moderating role of infant negative emotionality
Loading...
Authors
Meeting name
Sponsors
Date
Journal Title
Format
Thesis
Subject
Abstract
We examined the significance of mothers' neural responding implicated in facial encoding (N170) and attention (P300) to infant emotional expressions for direct observations of positive and negative caregiving behaviors and the role of infant negative emotionality in moderating associations in a sample of 137 mothers (78.4 percent White/Caucasian) of 6-month-old infants. Among infants high in negative emotionality, neural responding reflective of distinguishing (N170) and attending (P300) to infant distress (v. neutral) expressions was associated with sensitivity to distress, and neural responding reflective of encoding (N170) infant emotional (happy, distress v. neutral) expressions was associated with greater sensitivity to non-distress. Among infants lower in negative emotionality, mothers' detachment was associated with a heightened N170 to infants' emotional (happy, distress v. neutral) expressions. Regardless of infant negative emotionality, mothers' intrusiveness was associated with a dampened N170 to infant distress (v. neutral) expressions. Findings demonstrate the significance of infant negative emotionality in modulating the extent to which mothers' neural responding to infant expressions is associated with their caregiving behaviors and indicate that specific caregiving behaviors are associated with distinctive patterns of neural responding to infant emotional expressions.
Table of Contents
PubMed ID
Degree
M.A.