Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
Pediatric Mental Health Institute, Children's Hospital Colorado.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2019 Sep 30;14(9):997-1008. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsz069.
Face processing in mothers is linked to mother-infant social communication, which is critical for parenting and in turn for child development. Neuroimaging studies of child maltreatment-exposed (CME) mothers are sparse compared to studies of mothers with postpartum depression, which have suggested blunted amygdala reactivity to infant stimuli. We expected to see a similar pattern in CME mothers. Based on broader studies in trauma-exposed populations, we anticipated increased amygdala reactivity to negative adult face stimuli in a comparison task in CME mothers given heightened evaluation of potential threat. We examined Neuroimaging studies of mothers with childhood maltreatment exposure (CME) (18-37 years old), who performed infant (N = 45) and/or adult (N = 46) face processing tasks. CME mothers exhibited blunted bilateral amygdala reactivity to infant faces. There was no between-group difference in amygdala reactivity to adult faces. In infant and adult face processing tasks regardless of CME, superior temporal gyrus activation was increased for negative-valence stimuli. Our preliminary findings suggest that childhood maltreatment alters maternal processing of infant social cues, a critical skill impacting infant socioemotional development.
母亲的面部处理与母婴社会交流有关，这对育儿至关重要，进而对儿童发展也很重要。与产后抑郁母亲的神经影像学研究相比，针对受虐待儿童（CME）母亲的研究很少，这些研究表明，杏仁核对婴儿刺激的反应迟钝。我们预计 CME 母亲也会出现类似的情况。基于对创伤暴露人群的更广泛研究，我们预计 CME 母亲在比较任务中对负面成人面孔刺激的杏仁核反应会增加，因为她们对潜在威胁的评估会增加。我们研究了有儿童期虐待史（CME）的母亲（18-37 岁）的神经影像学研究，这些母亲进行了婴儿（N=45）和/或成人（N=46）面部处理任务。CME 母亲对婴儿面孔的双侧杏仁核反应迟钝。在成人面孔的杏仁核反应中，两组之间没有差异。无论是否存在 CME，在婴儿和成人面部处理任务中，对负性效价刺激的上颞叶激活增加。我们的初步发现表明，儿童虐待会改变母亲对婴儿社交线索的处理，而这种处理是影响婴儿社会情感发展的关键技能。
