Rutherford Helena J V, Byrne Simon P, Austin Grace M, Lee Jonathan D, Crowley Michael J, Mayes Linda C
Yale Child Study Center, Yale University, 230 South Frontage Road, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
Yale Child Study Center, Yale University, 230 South Frontage Road, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
Biol Psychol. 2017 Apr;125:115-120. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.03.002. Epub 2017 Mar 6.
Women are vulnerable to anxiety during pregnancy and postpartum. However, little is known about antenatal anxiety and neural processing of infant-relevant information. In this experiment, the N170, P300, and LPP (late positive potential) event-related potentials were measured from 43 pregnant women as they viewed infant and adult faces, which were either neutral or distressed in expression. Mother's self-reported anxiety levels were also assessed. The N170 was comparable across face conditions and was not associated with anxiety. However, our central finding was that greater levels of antenatal anxiety were associated with a larger LPP, but only for neutral infant faces. Results suggest that antenatal anxiety may result in deeper processing of neutral, emotionally ambiguous, infant faces during pregnancy. These findings are discussed in light of other work indicating an interpretive bias toward threat in response to neutral stimuli in anxiety.
女性在孕期和产后容易出现焦虑情绪。然而，对于产前焦虑以及与婴儿相关信息的神经处理过程，我们知之甚少。在本实验中，对43名孕妇观看表情为中性或痛苦的婴儿和成人面孔时的N170、P300和LPP（晚期正电位）事件相关电位进行了测量。同时也评估了母亲自我报告的焦虑水平。在不同面部条件下，N170没有差异，且与焦虑无关。然而，我们的核心发现是，产前焦虑程度越高，LPP越大，但仅针对中性婴儿面孔。结果表明，产前焦虑可能导致孕期对中性、情绪模糊的婴儿面孔进行更深入的处理。结合其他研究结果，即在焦虑状态下对中性刺激存在威胁性解释偏差，对这些发现进行了讨论。
