Reported maternal childhood maltreatment experiences, amygdala activation and functional connectivity to infant cry

Abstract

Maternal childhood maltreatment experiences (CMEs) may influence responses to infants and affect child outcomes. We examined associations between CME and mothers’ neural responses and functional connectivity to infant distress. We hypothesized that mothers with greater CME would exhibit higher amygdala reactivity and amygdala–supplementary motor area (SMA) functional connectivity to own infant’s cries. Postpartum mothers (N = 57) assessed for CME completed an functional magnetic resonance imaging task with cry and white-noise stimuli. Amygdala region-of-interest and psychophysiological interaction analyses were performed. Our models tested associations of CME with activation and connectivity during task conditions (own/other and cry/noise). Exploratory analyses with parenting behaviors were performed. Mothers with higher CME exhibited higher amygdala activation to own baby’s cries vs other stimuli (F1,392 = 6.9, P < 0.01, N = 57) and higher differential connectivity to cry vs noise between amygdala and SMA (F1,165 = 22.3, P < 0.001). Exploratory analyses revealed positive associations between both amygdala activation and connectivity and maternal non-intrusiveness (Ps < 0.05). Increased amygdala activation to own infant’s cry and higher amygdala–SMA functional connectivity suggest motor responses to baby’s distress. These findings were associated with less intrusive maternal behaviors. Follow-up studies might replicate these findings, add more granular parenting assessments and explore how cue processing leads to a motivated maternal approach in clinical populations.

The effects of childhood maltreatment on cortical thickness and gray matter volume: a coordinate-based meta-analysis

“…This area has drawn attentions because of a series of clinical deficits caused by its resection or damage, including abnormal motor integration, recognition of movement and thinking, memory storage, language production, conflict resolution, intention of action (Bozkurt et al, 2016; Coull, Vidal, Nazarian, & Macar, 2004; Kennerley, Sakai, & Rushworth, 2004; Mayka, Corcos, Leurgans, & Vaillancourt, 2006). The SMA also presented emotion and memory-related neural activity changes in people with a history of childhood trauma (Elton, Smitherman, Young, & Kilts, 2015; Lim et al, 2015; Ma et al, 2021; Olsavsky, Stoddard, Erhart, Tribble, & Kim, 2021). The left parahippocampal gyrus revealed GMV reductions solely in the adult sample in our results.…”

Reduced Child-Oriented Face Mirroring Brain Responses in Mothers With Opioid Use Disorder: An Exploratory Study

“…Across continents and cultures, the SMA was highlighted in response to own vs. other baby-cry for infant-oriented preparation for movement and vocalization (Bornstein et al, 2017) and also demonstrated to be important for child-oriented empathy in a parent decision-making fMRI task (Ho et al, 2014). Finally, SMA connectivity to amygdala was reported to be heightened during maternal responses to infant distress according to maternal childhood maltreatment and decreased maternal intrusive behaviors, suggesting the potential for transgenerational adaptations to early life adversity that could include brain responses and infant-oriented behaviors to increase maternal sensitivity (Olsavsky et al, 2021). Perhaps plasticity in the SMA could be a future target for interventions to address maternal health from early childhood maltreatment to OUD such as transcranial magnetic stimulation.…”

Trait coping styles and the maternal neural and behavioral sensitivity to an infant

“…use of incorrect stimuli). An overlapping sample of fMRI data from the current study has been included in prior publications 30 , 69 , 81 , 82 , however, the current research question has not been examined.…”