Journal
DEVELOPMENT AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
Volume 34, Issue 3, Pages 969-980Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S0954579420001558
Keywords
mother-infant dyads; mothers; simultaneous frontal EEG asymmetry; socioemotional development; transactional models
Categories
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
- Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
- Vanier Graduate Scholarship
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Studies have shown that socially avoidant mothers can influence the development of their offspring, but the neurophysiological mechanisms and the role of infants are not well understood. This study suggests that individual differences in frontal electroencephalogram asymmetry (FA) patterns may be a potential mechanism through which socially avoidant mothers transfer affective/behavioral information to their infants.
Studies have long observed the bidirectional nature of mother-infant relationships. While behavioral studies have shown that mothers high in social avoidance tendencies can influence the development of these traits in their offspring, the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, and the role that the infants play, are not well understood. Here we acquired frontal electroencephalogram asymmetry (FA) data simultaneously in 40 mother-infant dyads (M-age mother = 31.6 years; M-age infant = 9 months). Using an actor-partner interdependence model, we examined whether mother (or infant) resting-state FA predicted infant (or mother) FA during two subsequent emotion-eliciting conditions (happy and fear). Maternal social approach versus avoidance traits were assessed as moderators to examine the impact of maternal characteristics on these mother-infant FA relations. In dyads led by mothers with high social avoidance/low social approach characteristics, maternal resting-state FA predicted infant FA during both emotion-eliciting conditions. We did not observe any effects of infant FA on mothers. Therefore, we speculate that individual differences in FA patterns might be a putative brain mechanism through which socially avoidant mothers transfer affective/behavioral information to their infants.
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