Objective: The overall aim of this study was to investigate whether maternal emotion recognition of infant faces in a facial morphing task differed by maternal attachment style, and if this was moderated by a secure attachment prime, such that it would ameliorate the effects of maternal attachment insecurity. Method: 87 mothers of children aged 0-18 months completed measures of global and mother-specific trait attachment, post-natal depression, mood and state attachment alongside 2 sessions of an emotion recognition task. This task was made up of short movies created from photographs of infant faces, changing from neutral to either happy or sad. It was designed to assess sensitivity (accuracy of responses and intensity of emotion required to recognize the emotion) to changes in emotions expressed in the faces of infants. Participants also underwent a prime manipulation that was either attachment-based (experimental group) or neutral (control group). Results: There were no significant effects for global attachment scores (i.e., avoidant, anxious). However, there was a significant interaction effect of condition x maternal avoidant attachment for accuracy of recognition of happy infant faces. Explication of this interaction yielded an unexpected finding: participants reporting avoidant attachment relationships with their own mothers were less accurate in recognizing happy infant faces following the attachment prime than participants with maternal avoidant attachment in the control condition. Conclusions: Future research directions suggest ways to improve strength of effects and variability in attachment insecurity. Clinical implications of the study center on the preliminary evidence presented that supports carefully selected and executed interventions for mothers with attachment problems.

There is a paucity of research examining the neurobiological functioning of new mothers who have experienced parental loss during development. The current study investigated the relationship between inconsistent (IC) versus consistent (CC) care and brain activity in regions that comprise a putative neurobiological model of mothering. Mothers were shown positive and negative pictures of their own and an unfamiliar infant. Through repeated measures ANOVAs, it was found that BOLD activity was greater for own infant in the nucleus accumbens (NAC) and amygdala (AMY) and that positive pictures elicited greater BOLD response in the NAC, AMY and anterior cingulate cortex. Interestingly, IC mothers show an even greater response own infant in the NAC and left hypothalamus (HYPO). In the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, IC mothers showed greater BOLD response to other infant. Thus, functioning of the maternal circuit, which includes areas strongly implicated in reward, may be altered by early experiences.

There is a paucity of research examining the neurobiological functioning of new mothers who have experienced parental loss during development. The current study investigated the relationship between inconsistent (IC) versus consistent (CC) care and brain activity in regions that comprise a putative neurobiological model of mothering. Mothers were shown positive and negative pictures of their own and an unfamiliar infant. Through repeated measures ANOVAs, it was found that BOLD activity was greater for own infant in the nucleus accumbens (NAC) and amygdala (AMY) and that positive pictures elicited greater BOLD response in the NAC, AMY and anterior cingulate cortex. Interestingly, IC mothers show an even greater response own infant in the NAC and left hypothalamus (HYPO). In the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, IC mothers showed greater BOLD response to other infant. Thus, functioning of the maternal circuit, which includes areas strongly implicated in reward, may be altered by early experiences.

Infant faces represent highly salient visual stimuli that have been shown to elicit intuitive caregiving behaviors in healthy adults. However, the temporal dynamics of infant face processing in parents of young children remain poorly understood and the mechanism of action for the release of intuitive caregiving has not been elucidated. Although substantial advances have been made mapping the parental brain with fMRI, further work is needed to characterize the temporal dynamics of infant visual cue processing—particularly in populations at risk for disruptions in caregiving, such as families raising young children under conditions of economic adversity. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to examine the temporal dynamics of caregivers’ neural responses to unfamiliar infant faces in a sample of mothers raising young children with limited financial resources. To achieve this goal, this study utilized an event-related potential (ERP) paradigm—in combination with self-report and observational measures—to (1) examine the temporal dynamics of mothers’ infant face processing across different phases of perceptual processing; (2) test the relationship between mothers’ neural responses to unfamiliar infant faces and to other aspects of parental function; and (3) examine whether mothers’ neural responses to unfamiliar infant faces are sensitive to change with intervention. Three ERP components examined in prior work with caregivers (i.e., the P100, N170, and P300) were utilized to index the temporal dynamics of infant cue processing and two separate sets of analyses (Study 1 and Study 2) were conducted. Broadly speaking, the data collected in this investigation suggest that, for mothers raising young children under conditions of economic adversity, the parental brain begins differentiating between infant emotional expressions very early in the temporal course of stimulus perception and that mothers’ ERPs for unfamiliar infant faces are associated with other aspects of parental function, including self-reported experience and observable caregiving behavior. Preliminary analyses suggest that ERPs for unfamiliar infant faces are sensitive to change via a strength-based parenting program designed to reinforce caregivers’ attention to infant cues. These results are discussed with an emphasis on directions for future research and study limitations.