ArticleJournal of affective disorders2024
Across ages and places: Unpredictability of maternal sensory signals and child internalizing behaviors.
Article in Journal of affective disorders, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Temporal reorganization of maternal care during early life stress in mice.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Developmental origins of ADHD: sex-specific influences of early life unpredictability on symptom profiles.Journal of developmental origins of health and disease · 2026Article
- Unpredictable maternal signals and developmental profiles of child executive function from infancy to early childhood.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Anhedonia underlies the association between childhood unpredictability and adult PTSD symptoms: Evidence from three independent longitudinal cohorts.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- The Cognitive-Affective Social Processing and Emotion Regulation (CASPER) model.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Microbiome-behavior coupling shapes infant adaptation to early maternal unpredictability.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Sex-Specific Effects of Early-Life Unpredictability on Hippocampal and Amygdala Responses to Novelty in Adolescents.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Emotional Brain Development: Neurobiological Indicators from Fetus Through Toddlerhood.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Exploring the impact of maternal early life adversity on interoceptive sensibility in pregnancy: implications for prenatal depression.Archives of women's mental health · 2025Article
- Stress-induced modulation of maternal behavior and mesolimbic dopamine function.Current opinion in behavioral sciences · 2024Article
- Leveraging the science of early life predictability to inform policies promoting child health.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2024Review
- Annual Research Review: The power of predictability - patterns of signals in early life shape neurodevelopment and mental health trajectories.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2024Review
- Sex-Specific Associations Between Early-Life Unpredictability and Trajectories of Body Mass Index From Infancy to Adolescence.Biopsychosocial science and medicineArticle
- Prenatal tobacco and tobacco-Cannabis co-exposure and unpredictability in maternal anger/hostility: Implications for toddler reactivity.Neurotoxicology and teratologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
16 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPatterns of sensory inputs early in life play an integral role in shaping the maturation of neural circuits, including those implicated in emotion and cognition. In both experimental animal models and observational human research, unpredictable sensory signals have been linked to aberrant developmental outcomes, including poor memory and effortful control. These findings suggest that sensitivity to unpredictable sensory signals is conserved across species and sculpts the developing brain. The current study provides a novel investigation of unpredictable maternal sensory signals in early life and child internalizing behaviors. We tested these associations in three independent cohorts to probe the generalizability of associations across continents and cultures.
methodThe three prospective longitudinal cohorts were based in Orange, USA (n = 163, 47.2 % female, M
resultsEarly life exposure to unpredictable maternal sensory signals was associated with greater child fearfulness/anxiety in all three cohorts, above and beyond maternal sensitivity and sociodemographic factors. The association between unpredictable maternal sensory signals and child sadness/depression was relatively weaker and did not reach traditional thresholds for statistical significance. LIMITATIONS: The correlational design limits our ability to make causal inferences.
conclusionsFindings across the three diverse cohorts suggest that unpredictable maternal signals early in life shape the development of internalizing behaviors, particularly fearfulness and anxiety.
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