Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Interdsiciplinary Center, Herzila, Israel; Department of Psychology and Gonda Brain Science Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Department of Education, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2019 Jul 13;93:21-30. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2019.03.005. Epub 2019 Mar 12.
Maternal depression increases child vulnerability to psychopathology, loneliness, and social maladjustment; yet, its long-term effects on the social brain are unknown. In this prospective longitudinal study we examined the impact of early and persistent maternal depression on the neural basis of attachment in preadolescence. A community cohort was followed in two groups; children exposed to maternal depression from birth to 6 years and healthy controls. At 9 months and 6 years, mother-child interactions were coded for maternal sensitivity and affect synchrony and salivary oxytocin levels were assessed at 6 years. At preadolescence (11-13 years), children underwent magnetoencephalography (MEG) while exposed to own versus unfamiliar mother-child interaction. Own interaction elicited greater response in beta- and gamma-band oscillations across a wide cluster in temporal and insular cortices, including the Superior Temporal Sulcus, Superior Temporal Gyrus, Inferior Temporal Gyrus, and insula. Beta activations were predicted by maternal sensitivity across early childhood and gamma by affect synchrony. Oxytocin was related to beta response to social cues. Maternal depression impacted child's brain response in two ways. First, maternal depression significantly increased the prevalence of child affective disorder and such children showed no neural differentiation between attachment and non-attachment stimuli. Second, maternal depression decreased maternal sensitivity, affect synchrony, and child oxytocin across early childhood and these were longitudinally associated with aberrant neural response to attachment-specific and social-general cues in preadolescence. Our findings are the first to describe mechanisms by which maternal depression impairs the neural basis of attachment at the transition to adolescence and advocate the need for relationship-focused early interventions.
母亲抑郁会增加孩子易患精神病理学、孤独和社会适应不良的风险；然而，其对社会大脑的长期影响尚不清楚。在这项前瞻性纵向研究中，我们研究了早期和持续的母亲抑郁对青春期前依恋神经基础的影响。一个社区队列分为两组进行随访；一组儿童从出生到 6 岁期间母亲患有抑郁，另一组为健康对照组。在 9 个月和 6 岁时，对母婴互动中的母亲敏感性和情感同步性进行编码，并在 6 岁时评估唾液催产素水平。在青春期前（11-13 岁），儿童在暴露于自身与陌生母婴互动时接受脑磁图（MEG）扫描。自身互动在颞叶和脑岛的广泛皮质区（包括颞上沟、颞上回、颞下回和脑岛）中诱发了更大的β和γ波段振荡反应。β激活与整个儿童期的母亲敏感性有关，γ与情感同步有关。催产素与社会线索的β反应有关。母亲抑郁以两种方式影响孩子的大脑反应。首先，母亲抑郁显著增加了儿童情感障碍的患病率，这些儿童在依恋和非依恋刺激之间没有表现出神经分化。其次，母亲抑郁在整个儿童期降低了母亲敏感性、情感同步性和儿童催产素，这些因素与青春期前依恋特定和社会一般线索的异常神经反应存在纵向关联。我们的研究结果首次描述了母亲抑郁损害青春期过渡时依恋神经基础的机制，并提倡需要关注关系的早期干预。
