Consistency of EEG asymmetry patterns in infants of depressed mothers

Abstract

We evaluated frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry across multiple contexts as an index of a general affective response predisposition in 12‐month‐old infants whose mothers were at elevated risk for perinatal depression due to their mother’s history of depression. We further examined mothers’ prenatal, postnatal, and concurrent depressive symptom levels in relation to infants’ frontal EEG asymmetry consistency. Mothers (n = 132) with a history of depression prior to pregnancy completed depressive symptom scales repeatedly during pregnancy and the first year postpartum. Their 12‐month‐old infants’ frontal EEG asymmetry was recorded across five contexts (baseline/bubbles, peek‐a‐boo, play, feeding, and distract). Frontal EEG asymmetries showed small to moderate correlations across contexts. Mothers’ prenatal depression symptom levels (not postnatal or concurrent) were associated with infants having consistent right, rather than left, frontal EEG asymmetry, even after controlling for infants’ observed affect. These findings demonstrate the consistency of EEG asymmetry scores across contexts in 12‐month‐old infants at risk for the development of psychopathology, providing support for relative right frontal EEG asymmetry as a trait marker of vulnerability to depression. Findings also suggest the importance of mothers’ prenatal, rather than postnatal or concurrent depression, in predicting infants’ consistent patterns of relative right frontal EEG asymmetry across contexts.

Using different methods for calculating frontal alpha asymmetry to study its development from infancy to 3 years of age in a large longitudinal sample

“…A recent study by Goodman et al. (2020) found that 12‐month‐old infants with depressed mothers showed small to moderate correlations of FAA values across five different contexts, although this study was cross‐sectional. Most studies to our knowledge have compared FAA longitudinally at baseline and not during tasks.…”

Social EEG: A novel neurodevelopmental approach to studying brain‐behavior links and brain‐to‐brain synchrony during naturalistic toddler–parent interactions

“…Some researchers have developed approaches to bringing more true‐to‐life, dynamic qualities of the social world to the laboratory during EEG in part by expanding beyond presenting repeated stimuli via a computer. These include having an in‐person interaction with the participant in real‐time by playing peek‐a‐boo or directly speaking or singing to the child (Goodman et al., 2021; Jones et al., 2015; Leong et al., 2017; Orekhova et al., 1999; 2006; Ruysschaert et al., 2013; Shimada & Hiraki, 2006; St. John et al., 2016; Stroganova et al., 1997). Yet even with these methodological adaptations that aim to move toward stimuli more relevant to the child's own social context, the socialization being captured is still somewhat restricted in that it does not give children the opportunity to freely navigate interactions as they normally would in real‐world contexts outside of the laboratory.…”

Auditory Mismatch Responses to Emotional Stimuli in 3-Year-Olds in Relation to Prenatal Maternal Depression Symptoms

“…Despite the recent good quality studies addressing the relation of prenatal stress and child emotional processing in infancy ( Otte et al, 2015 ; Soe et al, 2016 ; Gustafsson et al, 2018 ; Goodman et al, 2021 ), the association of maternal prenatal stress with toddler’s neural processing of emotional information is unknown. Previous research, to our knowledge, has mainly focused on maternal prenatal anxiety as the indicator of prenatal stress ( Otte et al, 2015 ; van den Heuvel et al, 2018 ).…”

“…However, prior studies have mainly focused on investigating functional measures such as frontal asymmetry derived from EEG in infants exposed to prenatal ( Gustafsson et al, 2018 ), postpartum ( Dawson et al, 1992 , 1999 ; Lusby et al, 2014 ), or both prenatal and postpartum ( Soe et al, 2016 ; Goodman et al, 2021 ) maternal depression. Even the subclinical levels of prenatal maternal depression may have potential effects on infant brain development and EEG ( Gustafsson et al, 2018 ), and one potential trait marker of child’s vulnerability to maternal depression could be relative frontal EEG asymmetry ( Goodman et al, 2021 ). This pattern of brain activity has been shown to generalize to various situations, for example, to positive interactions with non-depressed adults ( Dawson et al, 1999 ).…”

“…This pattern of brain activity has been shown to generalize to various situations, for example, to positive interactions with non-depressed adults ( Dawson et al, 1999 ). Prenatal maternal depression may better predict offspring’s EEG activity compared to postnatal or concurrent depression ( Goodman et al, 2021 ). Furthermore, Porto et al (2020) , using fNIRS, showed that greater maternal negative affect (assessed postpartum) was associated with greater oxyhemoglobin activation in emotion-related brain region in infants, even if they did not find support for greater right versus left frontal cortex activation in association with maternal negative affect.…”