Listening to a baby crying induces higher electroencephalographic synchronization among prefrontal, temporal and parietal cortices in adoptive mothers

Pérez-Hernández, Marta; Hernández‐González, Miguel; Aguirre, Rosa María Hidalgo; Amezcua-Gutiérrez, Claudia; Guevara, Miguel Ángel

doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2017.02.003

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…A reduction in EEG coherence between prefrontal and temporoparietal regions may reflect a relative loosening of executive control over the more posterior, predominantly perceptual areas. Research on individual differences in brain responses to affectively laden information has shown that decreased prefrontal-posterior coupling during social-emotional stimulation is related to greater influence of perceptual input on affective states 19–27 . For example, individuals with high trait rumination exhibited decreased prefrontal-posterior coupling during negative emotional stimulation and the persistance of negative affect was related to the degree of prefrontal-posterior decoupling 26 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prefrontal-posterior coupling mediates transitions between emotional states and influences executive functioning

Hao

Lin

Smith

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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Emotions often result from fluctuating experiences with self-regulation unfolding over time. However, most research has been focused on neural responses to static, affective stimuli. We studied emotion transitions, which correspond to dynamic conditions of varying affective valence or intensities. Functional coupling of prefrontal and posterior cortex (EEG coherence) was recorded during exposure to stable versus changing emotion-eliciting images (static vs. dynamic conditions). Prefrontal-posterior coupling was decreased in the dynamic conditions compared to the static conditions. A decrease in prefrontal-posterior coupling implies less control of the prefrontal cortex over perceptual information, which may allow the brain to become more affected by emotional fluctuations. We also assessed the aftereffect of EEG coherence on executive functioning, utilizing the flanker task. Among individuals reporting higher chronic stress, executive functioning decreased after dynamic conditions. This decrease in executive functioning was mediated by the decrease in prefrontal-posterior coupling in the dynamic conditions. These findings suggest that the strength of prefrontal-posterior coupling is not only related to emotional transitions but also to executive functioning. The deterioration of executive functioning after dynamic emotional processing may reflect the additional cognitive effort required to process dynamic shifts in affective stimuli, and this relationship is exacerbated by chronic stress.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prefrontal-posterior coupling mediates transitions between emotional states and influences executive functioning

Hao

Lin

Smith

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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“…In addition, detailed observational comparisons of adoptive and nonadoptive mothers show both to be responsive, attentive, and respond effectively and contingently to their child's social and emotional clues (Suwalsky et al, 2008, 2012). These behavioral observations have been confirmed by EEG studies of biological and adoptive mothers responding to recordings of crying babies as well as pictures of babies; both groups of mothers were clearly different than nonmothers, suggesting brain functioning had been adapted to motherhood in adoptive mothers without the hormonal changes occasioned by birth and lactation (Perez‐Hernandez et al, 2017). However, one study did find very subtle differences in EEG frequencies that might reflect the absence of these hormonal changes, though the functional significance of these findings seems slight (Hernandez‐Gonzalez et al, 2016).…”

Section: The Adoptive Family: Is It a Model For Family Process In Bio...mentioning

confidence: 76%

Parenting in the Context of the Child: Genetic and Social Processes

Reiss

Ganiban

Leve³

et al. 2022

Monographs Society Res Child

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The focus on the role of parenting in child development has a long‐standing history. When measures of parenting precede changes in child development, researchers typically infer a causal role of parenting practices and attitudes on child development. However, this research is usually conducted with parents raising their own biological offspring. Such research designs cannot account for the effects of genes that are common to parents and children, nor for genetically influenced traits in children that influence how they are parented and how parenting affects them. The aim of this monograph is to provide a clearer view of parenting by synthesizing findings from the Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS).EGDS is a longitudinal study of adopted children, their birth parents, and their rearing parents studied across infancy and childhood. Families (N = 561) were recruited in the United States through adoption agencies between 2000 and 2010. Data collection began when adoptees were 9 months old (males = 57.2%; White 54.5%, Black 13.2%, Hispanic/Latinx 13.4%, Multiracial 17.8%, other 1.1%). The median child age at adoption placement was 2 days (M = 5.58, SD = 11.32). Adoptive parents were predominantly in their 30s, White, and coming from upper‐middle‐ or upper‐class backgrounds with high educational attainment (a mode at 4‐year college or graduate degree). Most adoptive parents were heterosexual couples, and were married at the beginning of the project. The birth parent sample was more racially and ethnically diverse, but the majority (70%) were White. At the beginning of the study, most birth mothers and fathers were in their 20s, with a mode of educational attainment at high school degree, and few of them were married. We have been following these family members over time, assessing their genetic influences, prenatal environment, rearing environment, and child development.Controlling for effects of genes common to parents and children, we confirmed some previously reported associations between parenting, parent psychopathology, and marital adjustment in relation to child problematic and prosocial behavior. We also observed effects of childrenʼs heritable characteristics, characteristics thought to be transmitted from parent to child by genetic means, on their parents and how those effects contributed to subsequent child development. For example, we found that genetically influenced child impulsivity and social withdrawal both elicited harsh parenting, whereas a genetically influenced sunny disposition elicited parental warmth. We found numerous instances of children's genetically influenced characteristics that enhanced positive parental influences on child development or that protected them from harsh parenting. Integrating our findings, we propose a new, genetically informed process model of parenting. We posit that parents implicitly or explicitly detect genetically influenced liabilities and assets in their children. We also suggest future research into factors such as marital adjustment, that favor parents responding with appropriate protection or enhancement. Our findings illustrate a productive use of genetic information in prevention research: helping parents respond effectively to a profile of child strengths and challenges rather than using genetic information simply to identify some children unresponsive to current preventive interventions.

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“…Parenting involves high frequency of social understanding combined with high importance of correctly interpreting social cues and therefore might serve as a training for social understanding. Studies comparing biological mothers with foster and adoptive mothers have found remarkable similarities in attention allocation (Grasso et al, 2009) and cortical synchronisation as measured with electroencephalography (Pérez-Hernández et al, 2017). This indicates that even without genetic relation, motherhood still leads to differences in social understanding lending further support for the possibility of training effects of motherhood.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Motherhood and theory of mind: increased activation in affective theory of mind and emotion processing areas

Plank¹,

Attar²,

Kunas³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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There is growing evidence that parenthood changes how people face the specific needs and requests of infants and children, especially their own. However, little is known about the influence of parenthood on theory of mind, the capacity to infer mental and affective states of others and derive action predictions based on these states. It is also unclear whether the effects of parenthood generalise to inferring states of adults or are specific to children. In this study, we investigated neural activation in mothers and women without children during an affective theory of mind task that focuses on predicting action intentions from both child and adult faces. Region-of-interest analyses showed that both emotion and theory of mind areas were activated more strongly in mothers than women without children. These differences were not specific to child stimuli but occurred in response to both adult and child stimuli. Different neural recruitment of emotion and theory of mind related areas might indicate that mothers and non-mothers employ different strategies to infer action intentions from affective faces. Whether these general differences in affective theory of mind between mothers and non-mothers are due to biological or experience-related changes should be subject of further investigation.

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Listening to a baby crying induces higher electroencephalographic synchronization among prefrontal, temporal and parietal cortices in adoptive mothers

Cited by 11 publications

References 86 publications

Prefrontal-posterior coupling mediates transitions between emotional states and influences executive functioning

Prefrontal-posterior coupling mediates transitions between emotional states and influences executive functioning

Parenting in the Context of the Child: Genetic and Social Processes

Motherhood and theory of mind: increased activation in affective theory of mind and emotion processing areas

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