Vagal tone in infants of depressed mothers

Abstract

Emotional reactivity and expressivity in infants have been previously correlated with vagal tone. This study investigated vagal tone of 3- and 6-month-old infants of depressed mothers. Vagal tone did not differ for infants of depressed versus nondepressed mothers at 3 months, but lower vagal tone was noted in infants of depressed versus nondepressed mothers at 6 months. The developmental increase in vagal tone that occurred between 3 and 6 months for infants of nondepressed mothers did not occur for infants of depressed mothers. Correlation analyses suggested that higher vagal tone at 6 months was related to more vocalizations and more optimal neurological scores.

Examining Outcome Variability: Correlates of Treatment Response in a Child and Adolescent Anxiety Clinic

“…The relation of maternal psychopathology symptoms with poorer outcome synergizes with current thought about the role of the family (particularly parents) in childhood anxiety disorders (e.g., Chorpita & Barlow, 1998;Ginsburg, Silverman, & Kurtines, 1995) and is consistent with past work on treatment response in conductdisordered youth (e.g., Patterson & Chamberlain, 1994). In addition, research on emotional development suggests that children of depressed mothers are at high risk for poor outcomes, particularly emotion-regulation problems (e.g., Field, Pickens, Fox, Nawrocki, & Gonzalez, 1995;Goodman, Brogan, Lynch, & Fielding, 1993;Zahn-Waxler, Kochanska, Krupnick, & McKnew, 1990; for review, see Southam-Gerow & Kendall, in press). Thus, the mechanism behind the poorer treatment response for these children may be linked to parent-child relational factors, either longstanding (e.g., delayed emotional development) or more proximal (e.g., depressed mothers may be less able to ensure child treatment compliance).…”

Withdrawn and intrusive maternal interaction style and infant frontal EEG asymmetry shifts in infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers

“…Infants of depressed mothers are also less responsive to facial expressions and show more negative and less positive affect when interacting with both their mothers (Cohn, Campbell, Matias, & Hopkins, 1990;Field, 1984) and a non-distressed adult (Field et al, 1988). In addition, infants of depressed mothers exhibit a distinct physiological profile marked by greater relative right frontal EEG activation (Dawson, Klinger, Panagiotides, Hill, & Spieker, 1992;Dawson et al, 1999;Field, Pickens, Fox, & Gonzalez, 1996;Jones, Field, Fox, Lundy, & Davalos, 1997).…”

“…Infants of depressed mothers are also less responsive to facial expressions and show more negative and less positive affect when interacting with both their mothers (Cohn, Campbell, Matias, & Hopkins, 1990;Field, 1984) and a non-distressed adult (Field et al, 1988). In addition, infants of depressed mothers exhibit a distinct physiological profile marked by greater relative right frontal EEG activation (Dawson, Klinger, Panagiotides, Hill, & Spieker, 1992;Dawson et al, 1999;Field, Pickens, Fox, & Gonzalez, 1996;Jones, Field, Fox, Lundy, & Davalos, 1997).Asymmetries in brain electrical activity (EEG) over the frontal cortex are associated with the balance of the neural activity underlying two essential dimensions of affect regulation including behavioral approach and behavioral withdrawal (Davidson, 1996 andFox, 1994). 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).…”

The roles of child reactivity and parenting context in infant pain response

“…Since vagal tone is responsive to context and to changes in breathing rate and depth, efforts were made to reduce this variation as much as possible and to colIect data under similar affective conditions (Field et al, 1995). In adults, training breathing to occur with a metronome has been used to control variation.…”