Electrophysiological Responses to Affective Stimuli in Neglectful Mothers

Abstract

Results illustrating an atypical neural processing in the early and late differentiation of infant faces have been obtained with neglectful mothers. The present study explores whether a different pattern of response is observed when using non-infant affective pictures. We examined the event-related evoked potentials and induced delta, theta and alpha activity in 14 neglectful mothers and 14 control mothers elicited while categorizing positive, negative and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System. Self-reports of anhedonia and empathy were also recorded. Early posterior negativity, P200 and late positive potential components were modulated by the emotional content of pictures in both groups. However, the LPP waveform had a more delayed and more attenuated maximum in neglectful mothers than in control mothers. Oscillatory responses indicated lower power increases for neglectful mothers than for control mothers in delta (1–4 Hz), theta (4–8 Hz) and lower alpha (8–10 Hz) bands at frontal sites, and a more consistent increase for neglectful mothers in theta and lower alpha bands at occipital sites, especially for negative pictures. These findings help us to better understand the limits of emotional insensitivity in neglectful mothers.

Cortical surface alterations in cingulate and frontal regulatory areas underlie insensitive mothering

“…Interestingly, this reverse pattern of GM increase in occipito-temporal regions and decrease in frontal regions is replicated through the different measures. A similar reverse pattern was obtained in the oscillatory rhythms of NM in response to emotional stimuli when compared to CM (León et al, 2014): the higher the increase in theta band oscillations (and lower alpha) at occipital sites, the lower it was in the frontal sites. Both morphometric and oscillatory patterns seem to reflect a lower engagement of frontal regulatory areasrelevant in sensitive caregivingover the occipital areas in NM.…”

“…These cortical alterations, along with the poor viso-emotional processing demonstrated by ERP and oscillatory measures (León et al, 2014;Rodrigo et al, 2011), the reduced fMRI activation in frontal and cingulate regions for crying faces , and the poor white matter connectivity in the viso-emotional circuits (Rodrigo et al, 2016), provide a more complete picture of the neurological underpinnings associated with neglectful caregiving and their impact on mother-child bonding. In this characterization we see alterations emerge in regions related to both the automatic "intuitive parenting" responsible for the fast and empathic response to the infant's emotional signals, as well as in other areas more related to the "regulated parenting" responsible for maintaining a self-regulated emotional state, a shared focus of attention and a temporal coordination and contingency with the child's actions.…”

Effects of the Video-feedback intervention to promote positive parenting and sensitive discipline on mothers’ neural responses to child faces: A randomized controlled ERP study including pre- and post-intervention measures

“…The current study, in contrast, included a sample of typical mothers and an intervention focused on typical parents rather than a specific clinical group. CPS-referred mothers and mothers experiencing difficulties parenting their children, are known to differ from typical mothers in their neural and physiological responses to children's emotional displays (e.g., León et al, 2014;Maupin et al, 2015;Reijman et al, 2014;Rodrigo et al, 2011;Wright, Laurent, & Ablow, 2017). An attachment-based intervention may therefore have differential effects depending on the population that is examined.…”

Inferior fronto-temporo-occipital connectivity: a missing link between maltreated girls and neglectful mothers

“…Mothers in response to infant videos showed greater own-infant response in the middle frontal gyrus associated with higher quality play interactions, such as less directive parent behavior and more interactive infant behavior ( Wan et al , 2014 ). In turn, evidence from electrophysiological studies has shown that neglectful mothers displayed a lack of increased face-specific N170 amplitude in response to crying vs laughing and neutral infant expressions and an attenuated brain response in the late positive potential to infant faces and emotional stimuli in general ( Rodrigo et al , 2011 ; León et al , 2014 ). In addition, an atypical fronto-occipital oscillatory pattern observed in neglectful mothers has been suggested as further evidence of impaired top-down signaling during emotional processing ( León et al , 2014 ).…”