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. 2016 Feb 10;11(2):e0147294.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147294. eCollection 2016.

Maternal Attachment Representation and Neurophysiological Processing during the Perception of Infants' Emotional Expressions

Rainer Leyh  1 , Christine Heinisch  1 , Johanna Behringer  1 , Iris Reiner  2 , Gottfried Spangler  1
Affiliations

Maternal Attachment Representation and Neurophysiological Processing during the Perception of Infants' Emotional Expressions

Rainer Leyh et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The perception of infant emotions is an integral part of sensitive caregiving within the mother-child relationship, a maternal ability which develops in mothers during their own attachment history. In this study we address the association between maternal attachment representation and brain activity underlying the perception of infant emotions. Event related potentials (ERPs) of 32 primiparous mothers were assessed during a three stimulus oddball task presenting negative, positive and neutral emotion expressions of infants as target, deviant or standard stimuli. Attachment representation was assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview during pregnancy. Securely attached mothers recognized emotions of infants more accurately than insecurely attached mothers. ERPs yielded amplified N170 amplitudes for insecure mothers when focusing on negative infant emotions. Secure mothers showed enlarged P3 amplitudes to target emotion expressions of infants compared to insecure mothers, especially within conditions with frequent negative infant emotions. In these conditions, P3 latencies were prolonged in insecure mothers. In summary, maternal attachment representation was found associated with brain activity during the perception of infant emotions. This further clarifies psychological mechanisms contributing to maternal sensitivity.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Grand averages of ERPs to target, deviant and standard stimuli for the P3 (left side) and the N170 (right side).
** < .01.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Grand averages for secure versus insecure mothers for P3 (left side) and N170 (right side).
* < .05.
Fig 3
Fig 3. N170 amplitude for secure and insecure mothers during conditions with positive and negative target valence.
*: p < .05.
Fig 4
Fig 4. P3 amplitude for secure and insecure mothers during conditions with emotional and neutral standard valence.
Emo: conditions with positive and negative standard valences; neut: conditions with neutral standard valence *: p < .05.
Fig 5
Fig 5. P3 latencies for secure and insecure mothers during conditions with emotional and neutral standard valence.
Emo: conditions with positive and negative standard valences; neut: conditions with neutral standard valence. *: p < .05.
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