Mothers’ amygdala response to positive or negative infant affect is modulated by personal relevance

Understanding, prioritizing and responding to infant affective cues is a key component of motherhood, with long-term implications for infant socio-emotional development. This important task includes identifying unique characteristics of one’s own infant, as they relate to differences in affect valen...

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Main Authors: Lane eStrathearn, Sohye eKim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2013-10-01
Series:Frontiers in Neuroscience
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnins.2013.00176/full
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spelling doaj-3342d7dbfb744a92868df9b7a873770c2020-11-24T23:37:55ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neuroscience1662-453X2013-10-01710.3389/fnins.2013.0017661638Mothers’ amygdala response to positive or negative infant affect is modulated by personal relevanceLane eStrathearn0Lane eStrathearn1Sohye eKim2Sohye eKim3Baylor College of MedicineBaylor College of MedicineBaylor College of MedicineBaylor College of MedicineUnderstanding, prioritizing and responding to infant affective cues is a key component of motherhood, with long-term implications for infant socio-emotional development. This important task includes identifying unique characteristics of one’s own infant, as they relate to differences in affect valence—happy or sad—while monitoring one’s own level of arousal. The amygdala has traditionally been understood to respond to affective valence; in the present study, we examined the potential effect of personal relevance on amygdala response, by testing whether mothers’ amygdala response to happy and sad infant face cues would be modulated by infant identity. We used functional MRI to measure amygdala activation in 39 first-time mothers, while they viewed happy, neutral and sad infant faces of both their own and a matched unknown infant. Emotional arousal to each face was rated using the Self Assessment Manikin Scales. Mixed-effects linear regression models were used to examine significant predictors of amygdala response. Overall, both arousal ratings and amygdala activation were greater when mothers viewed their own infant’s face compared with unknown infant faces. Sad faces were rated as more arousing than happy faces, regardless of infant identity. However, within the amygdala, a highly significant interaction effect was noted between infant identity and valence. For own-infant faces, amygdala activation was greater for happy than sad faces, whereas the opposite trend was seen for unknown-infant faces. Our findings suggest that the amygdala response to positive and negative valenced cues is modulated by personal relevance. Positive facial expressions from one’s own infant may play a particularly important role in eliciting maternal responses and strengthening the mother-infant bond.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnins.2013.00176/fullAffectAmygdalaemotionfacesfunctional MRIcontext
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Lane eStrathearn
Lane eStrathearn
Sohye eKim
Sohye eKim
spellingShingle Lane eStrathearn
Lane eStrathearn
Sohye eKim
Sohye eKim
Mothers’ amygdala response to positive or negative infant affect is modulated by personal relevance
Frontiers in Neuroscience
Affect
Amygdala
emotion
faces
functional MRI
context
author_facet Lane eStrathearn
Lane eStrathearn
Sohye eKim
Sohye eKim
author_sort Lane eStrathearn
title Mothers’ amygdala response to positive or negative infant affect is modulated by personal relevance
title_short Mothers’ amygdala response to positive or negative infant affect is modulated by personal relevance
title_full Mothers’ amygdala response to positive or negative infant affect is modulated by personal relevance
title_fullStr Mothers’ amygdala response to positive or negative infant affect is modulated by personal relevance
title_full_unstemmed Mothers’ amygdala response to positive or negative infant affect is modulated by personal relevance
title_sort mothers’ amygdala response to positive or negative infant affect is modulated by personal relevance
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
series Frontiers in Neuroscience
issn 1662-453X
publishDate 2013-10-01
description Understanding, prioritizing and responding to infant affective cues is a key component of motherhood, with long-term implications for infant socio-emotional development. This important task includes identifying unique characteristics of one’s own infant, as they relate to differences in affect valence—happy or sad—while monitoring one’s own level of arousal. The amygdala has traditionally been understood to respond to affective valence; in the present study, we examined the potential effect of personal relevance on amygdala response, by testing whether mothers’ amygdala response to happy and sad infant face cues would be modulated by infant identity. We used functional MRI to measure amygdala activation in 39 first-time mothers, while they viewed happy, neutral and sad infant faces of both their own and a matched unknown infant. Emotional arousal to each face was rated using the Self Assessment Manikin Scales. Mixed-effects linear regression models were used to examine significant predictors of amygdala response. Overall, both arousal ratings and amygdala activation were greater when mothers viewed their own infant’s face compared with unknown infant faces. Sad faces were rated as more arousing than happy faces, regardless of infant identity. However, within the amygdala, a highly significant interaction effect was noted between infant identity and valence. For own-infant faces, amygdala activation was greater for happy than sad faces, whereas the opposite trend was seen for unknown-infant faces. Our findings suggest that the amygdala response to positive and negative valenced cues is modulated by personal relevance. Positive facial expressions from one’s own infant may play a particularly important role in eliciting maternal responses and strengthening the mother-infant bond.
topic Affect
Amygdala
emotion
faces
functional MRI
context
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnins.2013.00176/full
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