Does anxiety impact the neural processing of child faces in mothers of school-aged children? An ERP study using an emotional Go/NoGo task

Kungl M, Rutherford HJ, Heinisch C, Beckmann M, Fasching P, Spangler G (2020)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2020

Journal

Social Neuroscience Taylor & Francis (Psychology Press): STM, Behavioural Science and Public Health Titles / Taylor & Francis (Psychology Press)

Pages Range: 1-14

DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2020.1788988

Abstract

Maternal anxiety during pregnancy and the early postpartum period is associated with heightened neural processing of neutral infant faces as measured by event-related potentials (ERPs). However, less is known about how anxiety shapes neural face processing in mothers of older children. In our study, 36 mothers of 8–10 year old children completed a Go/NoGo task consisting of neutral and emotional (happy, fearful) facial expressions posed by unfamiliar school-aged children while EEG was recorded. Higher levels of maternal anxiety -indexed via self-report- were associated with delayed behavioral responses to children’s fearful faces and increased N170 and LPP amplitudes elicited by children’s neutral faces. While anxiety was also positively related to the LPP elicited by children’s emotional faces, it only led to increased N170 amplitude responses to children’s fearful, but not happy, faces and only when they were NoGo cues. The study replicates and extends prior findings examining the impact of maternal anxiety on neural responses to neutral infant faces to later stages of parenting with further neural markers and emotional expressions being affected. Findings evidence the importance of studying these associations beyond infancy to increase our knowledge about processes potentially underlying the relation between anxiety and less optimal parenting across development.

Authors with CRIS profile

Melanie Kungl Lehrstuhl für Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogische Psychologie Christine Heinisch Lehrstuhl für Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogische Psychologie Matthias Beckmann Lehrstuhl für Geburtshilfe und Frauenheilkunde Peter Fasching Professur für Translationale Frauenheilkunde und Geburtshilfe Gottfried Spangler Lehrstuhl für Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogische Psychologie

Involved external institutions

Yale School of Medicine US United States (USA) (US)

How to cite

APA:

Kungl, M., Rutherford, H.J., Heinisch, C., Beckmann, M., Fasching, P., & Spangler, G. (2020). Does anxiety impact the neural processing of child faces in mothers of school-aged children? An ERP study using an emotional Go/NoGo task. Social Neuroscience, 1-14. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2020.1788988

MLA:

Kungl, Melanie, et al. "Does anxiety impact the neural processing of child faces in mothers of school-aged children? An ERP study using an emotional Go/NoGo task." Social Neuroscience (2020): 1-14.

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