TY - JOUR
T1 - Socioeconomic disadvantages and neural sensitivity to infant cry
T2 - Role of maternal distress
AU - Kim, Pilyoung
AU - Capistrano, Christian
AU - Congleton, Christina
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [R21HD078797]; the Professional Research Opportunity for Faculty (PROF) and Faculty Research Fund (FRF), University of Denver; and the Victoria S. Levin Award For Early Career Success in Young Children's Mental Health Research, Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). The authors wish to acknowledge Amy Anderson, Lindsay Blanton, Tanisha Crosby-Attipoe, Rachel Gray, Laura Jeske, Daniel Mason, Rebekah Tribble and Nanxi Xu for research assistance.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press.
PY - 2016/10/1
Y1 - 2016/10/1
N2 - Socioeconomic disadvantage such as poverty can increase distress levels, which may further make low-income mothers more vulnerable to difficulties in the transition to parenthood. However, little is known about the neurobiological processes by which poverty and maternal distress are associated with risks for adaptations to motherhood. Thus, the current study examined the associations between income and neural responses to infant cry sounds among first-time new mothers (N1/428) during the early postpartum period. Lower income was associated with reduced responses to infant cry in the medial prefrontal gyrus (involved in evaluating emotional values of stimuli), middle prefrontal gyrus (involved in affective regulation) and superior temporal gyrus (involved in sensory information processing). When examining the role of maternal distress, we found a mediating role of perceived stress, but not depressive symptoms, in the links between income and prefrontal responses to infant cry. Reduced neural responses to infant cry in the right middle frontal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus were further associated with less positive perceptions of parenting. The results demonstrate that perceived stress associated with socioeconomic disadvantages may contribute to reduced neural responses to infant cry, which is further associated with less positive perceptions of motherhood.
AB - Socioeconomic disadvantage such as poverty can increase distress levels, which may further make low-income mothers more vulnerable to difficulties in the transition to parenthood. However, little is known about the neurobiological processes by which poverty and maternal distress are associated with risks for adaptations to motherhood. Thus, the current study examined the associations between income and neural responses to infant cry sounds among first-time new mothers (N1/428) during the early postpartum period. Lower income was associated with reduced responses to infant cry in the medial prefrontal gyrus (involved in evaluating emotional values of stimuli), middle prefrontal gyrus (involved in affective regulation) and superior temporal gyrus (involved in sensory information processing). When examining the role of maternal distress, we found a mediating role of perceived stress, but not depressive symptoms, in the links between income and prefrontal responses to infant cry. Reduced neural responses to infant cry in the right middle frontal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus were further associated with less positive perceptions of parenting. The results demonstrate that perceived stress associated with socioeconomic disadvantages may contribute to reduced neural responses to infant cry, which is further associated with less positive perceptions of motherhood.
KW - Infant cry
KW - Maternal brain
KW - Neuroimaging
KW - Perceived stress
KW - Socioeconomic status
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84996538117&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/scan/nsw063
DO - 10.1093/scan/nsw063
M3 - Article
C2 - 27217119
AN - SCOPUS:84996538117
SN - 1749-5016
VL - 11
SP - 1597
EP - 1607
JO - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
JF - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
IS - 10
ER -