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ABSTRACT: Research on maternal neural response to infant distress highlights circuits that may underlie differences in quality of maternal behavior. However, it is far from clear which circuits are relevant to maternal sensitivity, as opposed to other maternal behavioral dimensions, particularly after the early postpartum. This study examined maternal sensitivity, intrusiveness, and mother-infant dyadic harmony as correlates of mothers' neural responses to the cries of their own infants. Twenty-two primiparous mothers were observed during an interaction with their infants at 18 months postpartum. In a separate functional neuroimaging session, mothers were exposed to their own infant's cry sound, as well as unfamiliar infant's cry and control sounds. Mothers who displayed more sensitive behaviors with their infant exhibited greater activation to their own infant's cry compared to that of an unfamiliar infant in the right frontal pole and inferior frontal gyrus. Mothers who displayed more intrusive behaviors with their infant showed greater activation in the left anterior insula and temporal pole, while mothers who had more harmonious interactions with their infant displayed greater activation in left hippocampal regions. The roles of these areas in the regulation of maternal emotion and stress, self and other awareness, and empathy are examined.
Developmental cognitive neuroscience. 05/2012; 2(4):428-36.
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ABSTRACT: Despite growing interest in conceptualizing ADHD as involving disrupted emotion regulation, few studies have examined the physiological mechanisms related to emotion regulation in children with this disorder. This study examined parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system reactivity via measures of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) in children with ADHD (n=32) and typically developing controls (n=34), using a novel emotion task with four conditions: negative induction, negative suppression, positive induction, and positive suppression of affect. Both groups showed strong task-response effects in RSA. However, typically developing children showed systematic variation in parasympathetic activity (RSA) depending on both emotion valence (more activation for negative emotion, reduced activation for positive emotion) and task demand (more activation for suppression than induction). In contrast, children with ADHD displayed a stable pattern of elevated parasympathetic activity (RSA) across all task conditions compared to baseline. No group differences in sympathetic activity (PEP) were observed. It is concluded ADHD in childhood is associated with abnormal parasympathetic mechanisms involved in emotion regulation.
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 03/2011; 39(6):841-52. · 3.09 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: A key underlying process that may contribute to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) involves alterations in reward evaluation, including assessing the relative value of immediate over delayed rewards. This study examines whether children with ADHD discount the value of delayed rewards to a greater degree than typically developing children using a delay discounting task.
Children aged 7-9 years diagnosed with ADHD and controls completed a task in which they chose between a hypothetical $10 available after a delay (7, 30, 90 and 180 days) versus various amounts available immediately.
ADHD participants discounted more steeply than controls. However, this effect did not survive covarying of IQ.
ADHD is associated with a steeper delay gradient when contemplating hypothetical later rewards, but not independently of IQ. The interplay of cognitive processing and IQ with reward evaluation in ADHD requires further exploration.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 11/2010; 52(3):256-64. · 4.28 Impact Factor
