Associations between infant amygdala functional connectivity and social engagement following a stressor: A preliminary investigation

Abstract

Functional architecture of the infant brain, especially functional connectivity (FC) within the amygdala network and between the amygdala and other networks (i.e., default‐mode [DMN] and salience [SAL] networks), provides a neural basis for infant socioemotional functioning. Yet, little is known about the extent to which early within‐ and between‐network amygdala FC are related to infant stress recovery across the first year of life. In this study, we examined associations between amygdala FC (i.e., within‐network amygdala connectivity, and between‐network amygdala connectivity with the DMN and SAL) at 3 months and infant recovery from a mild social stressor at 3, 6 and 9 months. At 3 months, thirty‐five infants (13 girls) underwent resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging during natural sleep. Infants and their mothers completed the still‐face paradigm at 3, 6, and 9 months, and infant stress recovery was assessed at each time point as the proportion of infant social engagement during the reunion episode. Bivariate correlations indicated that greater positive within‐network amygdala FC and greater positive amygdala‐SAL FC, but not amygdala‐DMN FC, at 3 months predicted lower levels of stress recovery at 3 and 6 months, but were nonsignificant at 9 months. These findings provide preliminary evidence that early functional synchronization within the amygdala network, as well as segregation between the amygdala and the SAL, may contribute to infant stress recovery in the context of infant–mother interaction.

Systematic exploration of task-based functional connectivity analyses for infant fNIRS data: Toward single trial measures of connectivity

“…Longitudinal research has provided insights that functional connectivity early in the first year is strongest between local regions (Lee et al, 2013), but that long-range functional connectivity increases across the first year of life (Damaraju et al, 2014) and continues into early childhood (Lee et al, 2013). Indeed, important links have been established between functional connectivity networks in infancy and the development of infant sustained attention (Xie et al, 2019), infant stress recovery (Hu et al, 2024), early language skills (Yu et al, 2021), and even cognitive and emotional outcomes at age 4 (Salzwedel et al, 2019).…”