ArticleJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2022
Infants' neural responses to emotional faces are related to maternal anxiety.
Article in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Isolated physical activity programs during pregnancy and postpartum: Meta-analysis of randomized trials with usual-care controls on depressive and anxiety symptoms.Archives of women's mental health · 2026Pooled it
- Early-life neural correlates of behavioral inhibition and anxiety risk.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Neural Tracking of the Maternal Voice in the Infant Brain.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Using novel neural measures to explore the development of infant attention bias to threat.Developmental psychology · 2025Article
- The role of children's neural responses to emotional faces in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety symptomatology.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- Associations Among EEG Aperiodic Slope, Infant Temperament, and Maternal Anxiety/Depression Symptoms in Infancy.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Parental emotionality is related to preschool children's neural responses to emotional faces.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2024Article
- Infant and maternal responses to emotional facial expressions: A longitudinal study.Infant behavior & development · 2023Article
- Face processing in the infant brain after pandemic lockdown.Developmental psychobiology · 2023Article
- How the Emotional Environment Shapes the Emotional Life of the Child.Policy insights from the behavioral and brain sciences · 2022Article
- How Does Paternal Odor Influence Perception of Fearful and Happy Faces in Infancy?Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant StudiesArticle
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPostnatal maternal anxiety is common (estimates as high as 40% prevalence) and is associated with altered mother-infant interactions (e.g., reduced maternal emotional expression and engagement). Neural circuitry supporting infants' face and emotion processing develops in their first year. Thus, early exposure to maternal anxiety may impact infants' developing understanding of emotional displays. We examine whether maternal anxiety is associated with individual differences in typically developing infants' neural responses to emotional faces.
methodsOne hundred and forty two mother-infant dyads were assessed when infants were 5, 7, or 12 months old. Infants' electroencephalographic (EEG) data were recorded while passively viewing female happy, fearful, and angry faces. Three event-related potential (ERP) components, each linked to face and emotion processing, were evaluated: NC, N290, and P400. Infant ERP amplitude was related to concurrent maternal-report anxiety assessed with the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Trait form).
resultsGreater maternal anxiety predicted more negative NC amplitude for happy and fearful faces in left and mid-central scalp regions, beyond covarying influences of maternal depression symptoms, infant negative emotionality, and infant age.
conclusionsPostnatal maternal anxiety is related to infants' neural processing of emotional expressions. Infants of mothers endorsing high trait anxiety may need additional attentional resources to process happy and fearful faces (expressions less likely experienced in mother-infant interactions). Future research should investigate mechanisms underlying this association, given possibilities include experiential, genetic, and prenatal factors.
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