Facultad de Psicología, Campus de Guajara, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.
Dev Psychopathol. 2011 Feb;23(1):163-76. doi: 10.1017/S0954579410000714.
This investigation examined the neural and personality correlates of processing infant facial expressions in mothers with substantiated neglect of a child under 5 years old. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 14 neglectful and 14 control mothers as they viewed and categorized pictures of infant cries, laughs, and neutral faces. Maternal self-reports of anhedonia and empathy were also completed. Early (negative occipitotemporal component peaking at around 170 ms on the scalp [N170] and positive electrical potential peaking at about 200 ms [P200]) and late positive potential (LPP) components were selected. Both groups of mothers showed behavioral discrimination between the different facial expressions via reaction time and accuracy measures. Neglectful mothers did not exhibit increased N170 amplitude at temporal leads in response to viewing crying versus laughing and neutral expressions compared to control mothers. Both groups had greater P200 and LPP amplitudes at centroparietal leads in response to viewing crying versus neutral facial expressions. However, neglectful mothers displayed an overall attenuated brain response in LPP that was related to their higher scores in social anhedonia but not to their empathy scores. The ERP data suggest that the brain's failures in the early differentiation of cry stimuli and in the sustained processing of infant expressions related to social anhedonia may underlie the insensitive responding in neglectful mothers. The implications of these results for the design and evaluation of preventive interventions are discussed.
本研究考察了被证实忽视 5 岁以下儿童的母亲对婴儿面部表情的处理与神经和人格之间的关系。14 名忽视组母亲和 14 名对照组母亲观看并分类婴儿哭声、笑声和中性面孔的图片时，记录了事件相关电位 (ERP)。还完成了母亲关于快感缺失和同理心的自我报告。选择了早期（负性枕颞成分，头皮上的峰值约为 170 毫秒 [N170] 和正电潜力，峰值约为 200 毫秒 [P200]）和晚期正电位 (LPP) 成分。两组母亲都通过反应时间和准确性测量在不同面部表情之间表现出行为上的辨别。与对照组母亲相比，忽视组母亲在观看哭泣与大笑和中性表情时，颞叶导联的 N170 振幅没有增加。两组母亲在观看哭泣与中性面部表情时，中央顶叶导联的 P200 和 LPP 振幅都更大。然而，忽视组母亲的 LPP 大脑反应总体减弱，这与她们较高的社交快感缺失评分有关，而与同理心评分无关。ERP 数据表明，大脑在早期区分哭声刺激和持续处理与社交快感缺失相关的婴儿表情方面的失败，可能是忽视组母亲反应迟钝的原因。这些结果对预防干预措施的设计和评估具有启示意义。
