Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39905759›Full record

ArticlePsychological medicine2025

Maladaptive mother-child interactions in mothers with remitted major depression are associated with blunted amygdala responses to child affective facial expressions.

Catherine Hindi Attar, Neele Ridder, Jenny Stein, Dorothea Kluczniok, Katja Dittrich, Charlotte Jaite, Stephanie Spengler, Katja Bödecker, Sina Poppinga, Corinne Neukel and 6 more

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Article in Psychological medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

16 authors.

Catherine Hindi AttarDepartment of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Charité Universitätsmedizin - Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.ORCID 0009-0006-5497-5753
Neele RidderDepartment of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Charité Universitätsmedizin - Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Jenny SteinDepartment of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Charité Universitätsmedizin - Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Dorothea KluczniokDepartment of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Charité Universitätsmedizin - Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Katja DittrichDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Charité Universitätsmedizin - Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Berlin, Germany.
Charlotte JaiteDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Charité Universitätsmedizin - Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Berlin, Germany.
Stephanie SpenglerCharité Universitätsmedizin - Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute of Medical Psychology, Berlin, Germany.
Katja BödeckerDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Charité Universitätsmedizin - Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Berlin, Germany.
Sina PoppingaDepartment of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Charité Universitätsmedizin - Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Corinne NeukelDepartment for General Psychiatry, Center of Psychosocial Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Judith von SchönfeldDepartment of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Charité Universitätsmedizin - Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Sabine HerpertzDepartment for General Psychiatry, Center of Psychosocial Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Romuald BrunnerDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
Kristina MeyerCharité Universitätsmedizin - Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute of Medical Psychology, Berlin, Germany.
Andreas HeinzDepartment of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Charité Universitätsmedizin - Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Felix BermpohlDepartment of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Charité Universitätsmedizin - Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMaternal depression is associated with difficulties in understanding and adequately responding to children's emotional signals. Consequently, the interaction between mother and child is often disturbed. However, little is known about the neural correlates of these parenting difficulties. Motivated by increasing evidence of the amygdala's important role in mediating maternal behavior, we investigated amygdala responses to child sad and happy faces in mothers with remitted major depression disorder (rMDD) relative to healthy controls.

methodsWe used the sensitivity subscale of the emotional availability scales and functional magnetic resonance imaging in 61 rMDD and 27 healthy mothers to examine the effect of maternal sensitivity on mothers' amygdala responses to their children's affective facial expressions.

resultsFor mothers with rMDD relative to controls, we observed decreased maternal sensitivity when interacting with their child. They also showed reduced amygdala responses to child affective faces that were associated with lower maternal sensitivity. Connectivity analysis revealed that this blunted amygdala response in rMDD mothers was functionally correlated with reduced activation in higher-order medial prefrontal areas.

conclusionsOur results contribute toward a better understanding of the detrimental effects of lifetime depression on maternal sensitivity and associated brain responses. By targeting region-specific neural activation patterns, these results are a first step toward improving the prediction, prevention, and treatment of depression-related negative effects on mother-child interaction.

Indexed as

AmygdalaFacial ExpressionFacial RecognitionMajor Depressive DisorderMaternal BehaviorMother-Child RelationsMothersAdultChildFemaleHumansMagnetic Resonance ImagingMalePrefrontal Cortexamygdalaamygdala functional connectivitychild affective facesearly life maltreatmentemotionfMRIhuman parental braininsulamaternal sensitivitymother-child interactive behaviorremitted depressionvmPFC

Identifiers

PMID39905759
PMCPMC11968120

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.