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.

Early experience critically shapes cognitive, affective, and behavioral development, and experiences of early life stress (ELS) have been documented to negatively impact developmental trajectories. An increasing need exists for innovative intervention development to ameliorate negative impacts of ELS. Translational neuroscience approaches hold promise for addressing the needs of individuals who have experienced ELS through the development and testing of targeted intervention strategies grounded in neuroscientific knowledge. The current dissertation work employed a translational neuroscience approach to improve inhibitory control (IC) in a group of adolescents (N=20) exposed to a range of ELS via a brief, computerized training paradigm. Baseline analyses of the association between ELS and IC revealed a positive relationship (i.e., increased ELS, increased IC performance), counter to hypotheses. The IC training did not significantly improve IC in the training group compared to the control group over time, contrary to hypotheses and previous work demonstrating the effectiveness of this IC training in young adults. Transfer of training effects to a non-trained IC task and to real-world risk-taking behavior were limited. ELS demonstrated some moderation of neural effects of IC training. The use of neuroimaging in this dissertation work allowed for further investigation of neural mechanisms even in the absence of significant behavioral training, transfer, and moderation effects. Results are discussed in the context of the utility of such IC training approaches for adolescents with ELS exposure and of translational neuroscience approaches more broadly. Future directions for IC training, translational neuroscience intervention approaches, and the incorporation of neuroimaging in this work are explored. This dissertation includes unpublished co-authored material. / 10000-01-01

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