Facial expression and EEG responses to happy and sad faces/voices by 3‐month‐old infants of depressed mothers

Abstract

Videotaped happy and sad facehoice stimuli were presented after a neutral starfield baseline stimulus to 24 3-month-old infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers.The infants looked at and showed more positive expressions during the happy and sad facdvoice stimuli versus the neutral starfield. The infants of non-depressed versus depressed mothers looked at the sad facehoice stimulus longer, perhaps because the sad facelvoice stimulus was more novel for the infants of non-depressed mothers.

Biological studies in depressed children and adolescents

“…Moreover, offspring of depressed mothers have been shown to have left-right brain frontal hemisphere asymmetry in their EEGs (e.g. Dawson et al, 1997 ;Field et al, 1998). In adults, normal subjects without prior depressive episodes but with a positive family history of MDD have been reported to have the following biological alterations compared to subjects without positive family histories : (1) a greater worsening in mood after tryptophan depletion (Benkelfat et al, 1994) ; (2) low CSF-5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) (Rosenthal, 1980 ;Sedvall et al, 1980) ; (3) altered HPA responses (Holsboer, 1995) ; and (4) baseline and after stimulation sleep EEG abnormalities (Fulton et al, 2000 ;Laurer et al, 1995 ;Schreiber et al, 1992 ;Sitaram et al, 1987).…”

Temperament theory and the study of cognition–emotion interactions across development

“…The Nc is thought to reflect attentional arousal and orienting (Courchesne, Ganz, & Norcia, 1981;Nelson, 1994;Richards, 2003). Therefore, this finding was interpreted as reflecting fearful infants' tendencies to be sensitive to signs of novelty and to more easily engage the right hemisphere while processing negative emotions (e.g., Field, Pickens, Fox, Gonzalez, & Nawrocki, 1998).…”

Withdrawn and intrusive maternal interaction style and infant frontal EEG asymmetry shifts in infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers

“…Greater relative right frontal EEG activation is thought to reflect greater behavioral withdrawal and has been associated with responses to negative stimuli, inhibited behavior, negative affect and poor emotion regulation (Davidson, 1996 andFox, 1994). Infants also exhibit greater relative right frontal EEG activation during the expression, regulation and perception of negative/ withdrawal emotions (Davidson & Fox, 1982;Field, Pickens, Fox, Gonzalez, & Nawrocki, 1998 activation has been consistently noted in depressed adults (see Davidson, 1996 andDavidson, 2000 for reviews) and infants of depressed mothers as early as birth and Jones et al, 1998.…”

“…Greater relative right frontal EEG activation is thought to reflect greater behavioral withdrawal and has been associated with responses to negative stimuli, inhibited behavior, negative affect and poor emotion regulation (Davidson, 1996 andFox, 1994). Infants also exhibit greater relative right frontal EEG activation during the expression, regulation and perception of negative/ withdrawal emotions (Davidson & Fox, 1982;Field, Pickens, Fox, Gonzalez, & Nawrocki, 1998 activation has been consistently noted in depressed adults (see Davidson, 1996 andDavidson, 2000 for reviews) and infants of depressed mothers as early as birth and Jones et al, 1998.Frontal EEG asymmetry profiles in depressed individuals have been shown to remain stable across time (Tomarken, Keener, & Neubauer, 1994; Vuga et al, 2006) and are present even when these individuals show a remission in their behavioral symptoms (Henriques & Davidson, 1990). Frontal EEG asymmetry profiles have also been shown to remain stable from 1 month to 3 months (Jones, Field, Fox, et al, 1997) and from 3 months to 3 years (Jones, Field, Davalos, & Pickens, 1997) in infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers.…”