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Objective: This exploratory study aimed to examine associations between executive function and simulated and self-reported driving behavior among young adults with and without a history of prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE).Methods: Young adult drivers with PCE (n = 38) and with no drug exposure (NDE; n = 25) were recruited from an ongoing longitudinal birth cohort study assessing effects of PCE on development (Mean age = 23.7; 60.3% male; 61.9% with a valid U.S. driver's license, 38.1% report independent driving without a license). Participants completed executive function tasks (i.e., the Stop Signal Task and Groton Maze Learning Task) and self-reported driving measures (i.e., Checkpoints Risky Driving Scale (C-RDS)) outside the cab. Average stop signal reaction time(s) measured inhibitory control, number of exploratory errors measured visuo-spatial working memory, and the total C-RDS score measured self-reported risky driving. Participants completed a high-fidelity driving simulation scenario in a miniSim™ ½ cab National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS) that yielded indicators of driving performance shown in previous research to correlate with inhibitory control (e.g., average speed, standard deviation lane position (SDLP)) and working memory (minimum headway time, lane departures). Multivariate linear regression models tested whether PCE status, licensure status and executive function measures were associated with simulated driving measures or C-RDS, controlling for sex.Results: Multivariate regression models demonstrated inhibitory control, working memory and PCE group status was not significantly associated with driving outcomes. Licensure was significantly associated with total lane departures (β = -0.66, SE = 0.19; p < 0.01) and C-RDS (β = 5.86, SE = 1.4; p ≤ 0.001).Conclusions: This exploratory study suggests that young adults with PCE have similar neurocognitive performance and driving behaviors as their non-drug exposed (NDE) peers. These findings add to the growing literature demonstrating that the effect of PCE on cognitive functions in childhood may not persist to young adulthood. Further research with similar groups of young drivers in a naturalistic driving context (i.e., instrumented vehicles) is needed to more definitively translate and confirm our findings.

A large body of work documents the utility of behavioral risk tasks for making inferences about adolescent risk-taking proclivities and related emotional and motivational correlates. Much less attention has been paid to risk-avoidance during adolescence. We provide validity data for a behavioral measure designed to assess avoidance, the Balloon Risk-Avoidance Task (BRAT). We examined avoidance in 127 youth, ages 10–17 (51% female, 68% Caucasian). Correlation analyses indicated significant positive associations between anxiety, fear, and BRAT avoidance behavior. Providing discriminant validity, avoidance on the BRAT was unrelated to depressive symptoms, depressed mood, or trait surgency (approach motivation). The BRAT was negatively associated with risk-taking behavior on the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART). IQ and age were not associated with avoidance on the BRAT. We found that females showed significantly more avoidance behavior than males, but sex did not moderate the association between anxiety and avoidance. Cluster-based analyses revealed a subset of youth in mid-to-late adolescence showing significantly greater levels of avoidance behavior on the BRAT. These adolescents had higher levels of reported anxiety symptoms compared to individuals in mid-to-late who show lower levels of avoidance. Findings are discussed in terms of the clinical implications and the potential role that avoidance serves as both protective and risk factors in youth.

Research is needed to better understand how childhood maltreatment history affects parental reflective capacities, and whether early childhood interventions help mitigate these effects. We examined associations between childhood maltreatment and current parenting (parental reflective functioning, parenting behaviors) among mothers who participated in a follow-up study ( N = 97) of the Minding the Baby® (MTB) randomized control trial. MTB is a home visiting program that aims to help mothers understand their child’s mental states (feelings, intentions, needs) by promoting parental reflective functioning. Mothers retrospectively reported childhood maltreatment using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Endorsing a higher number of childhood maltreatment subtypes was associated with less supportive/engaged parenting and higher pre-mentalizing modes, or difficulty with appropriately reflecting on the child’s mental states. These relationships were not moderated by participation in the MTB intervention. However, exploratory analyses of individual maltreatment subtypes revealed that participation in MTB may mitigate the harmful effects of childhood emotional abuse on pre-mentalizing modes, specifically. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms through which early childhood interventions may prevent intergenerational cycles of maltreatment.

Distracted driving remains a leading factor in fatal motor vehicle crashes, particularly in young drivers. Due to ongoing neuromaturation, attention capabilities are changing and improving throughout young adulthood. Here, we sought to bridge neuroscience with driving simulation by evaluating the effects of driving on attention processing through a selective auditory attention task. Participants (18-25 years old) engaged in an auditory attention task during LOAD (driving a high-fidelity simulator) and No-LOAD conditions (sitting in the parked simulator). For the auditory task, participants responded to a target auditory tone in a target ear. The event-related potential components, collected from frontal and posterior regions, P2 and P3, were used to evaluate attention processing across LOAD and No-LOAD conditions for attended and unattended stimuli. Data from 24 participants were evaluated in repeated measures ANOVAs, considering interactions between load and attention conditions for the P2 and P3 components of the cortical region. We observed a significant difference between response to attended and unattended stimuli for posterior P2 and P3 responses at the frontal and posterior midline sites. Comparing LOAD and No-LOAD conditions, there was a significant difference for P2 response at the posterior site and P3 response at the frontal site. A significant interaction between load and attended stimuli was found for P3 response at the posterior site. These data document differences in neural processing of auditory stimuli during high-fidelity simulated driving versus sitting parked in the simulator. Findings suggest the cognitive load of driving affects auditory attention.

Objective Infant crying can lead to parental frustration and is the most common trigger for abusive head trauma (AHT). We used qualitative methodology with an activating stimulus (an audiotape of an infant crying) to prime the participants to engage in open dialogue for the purpose of understanding their perceptions of infant crying and its association with AHT, with the aim that information from these interviews and the impact of hearing the activating stimulus could be used to inform interventions to prevent AHT that would resonate with parents. Methods We conducted 25 initial qualitative interviews and 16 subsequent interviews with mothers and fathers of newborns. Before the initial interview, parents listened to a 1-minute audio clip of a crying infant, followed by a preventive message regarding AHT. The transcribed data were analyzed, and themes were developed using the constant comparative method of grounded theory. Data collection and analysis continued past the point of thematic saturation. Results Four themes emerged from the initial interviews: (1) previous experience is helpful to manage infant crying; (2) babies cry for a reason; (3) shaking an infant is incomprehensible to parents; and (4) the role of safety planning to manage frustration with crying. Analysis of the subsequent interviews revealed two additional themes: (1) use of supports for infant crying (e.g., technology and physician advice) and (2) effects of the audio clip on caregiving practices. Conclusion Previous experiences and beliefs about crying affect parents’ perceptions of infant crying and AHT. After discharge, parents reported using technology for information and support and thinking about the audio clip when caring for their infant. These experiences, beliefs and practices may aid in shaping effective prevention strategies to prevent AHT.

Cannabis use and related disorders are common in adults and frequently co-occur with subsyndromal and pathological gambling. However, understanding how cannabis use may moderate relationships between problem-gambling severity and psychiatric disorders remains poorly understood. Data from the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (N = 43,093 adults) were examined to investigate how cannabis use moderated associations between problem-gambling severity (with gambling groups based on the 10 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual [DSM-IV] inclusionary criteria for pathological gambling) and Axis I and Axis II psychiatric disorders. Problem-gambling severity groups included low frequency/nongambling, low-risk gambling, at-risk gambling, and problem/pathological gambling (PPG). Among both the group with lifetime cannabis use and that which never used cannabis, greater problem-gambling severity was associated with more psychopathology across mood, anxiety, substance-use and Axis II disorders. Significant Cannabis Use × Problem-Gambling Severity Group interactions were observed between PPG and major depression (OR = 0.35, 95% CI = [0.14-0.85]), cluster A personality disorders (OR = 0.37, 95% CI = [0.16-0.86])-especially paranoid personality disorder (OR = 0.34, 95% CI = [0.14-0.81])-and cluster B personality disorders (OR = 0.36, 95% CI = [0.18-0.75])-especially antisocial personality disorder (OR = 0.25, 95% CI = [0.11-0.60]). In all cases, associations between problem-gambling severity and psychopathologies were weaker among the lifetime-cannabis-using group as compared to the never-using group. Cannabis use moderates the relationships between problem-gambling severity and psychiatric disorders, with cannabis use appearing to account for some of the variance in the associations between greater problem-gambling severity and specific forms of psychopathology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The papers in this special issue were delivered at the inaugural Anne Marie Sandler Symposium in Infant Mental Health. The theme of the imagined baby, around which each of these papers is oriented,...

Maternal bonding early postpartum lays an important foundation for child development. Changing brain structure and function during pregnancy and postpartum may underscore maternal bonding. We employed connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM) to measure brain functional connectivity and predict self-reported maternal bonding in mothers at 2 and 8 months postpartum. At 2 months, CPM predicted maternal anxiety in the bonding relationship: Greater integration between cerebellar and motor–sensory–auditory networks and between frontoparietal and motor–sensory–auditory networks were associated with more maternal anxiety toward their infant. Furthermore, greater segregation between the cerebellar and frontoparietal, and within the motor-sensory-auditory networks, was associated with more maternal anxiety regarding their infant. We did not observe CPM prediction of maternal bonding impairments or rejection/anger toward the infant. Finally, considering 2 and 8 months of data, changes in network connectivity were associated with changes in maternal anxiety in the bonding relationship. Our results suggest that changing connectivity among maternal brain networks may provide insight into the mother–infant bond, specifically in the context of anxiety and the representation of the infant in the mother’s mind. These findings provide an opportunity to mechanistically investigate approaches to enhance the connectivity of these networks to optimize the representational and behavioral quality of the caregiving relationship.

PURPOSE. A growing body of human research has documented associations between the maternal brain and maternal substance use and addictions. This neuroscience-informed approach affords the opportunity to unpack potential neurobiological mechanisms that may underscore challenges in maternal caregiving behavior among mothers with addictions and provide new directions for parenting interventions. FINDINGS. Consistent with theoretical models of parenting and addictions, five studies evidence both hypo- and hyper-reactivity to infant affective cues across neuroimaging methods and tasks that incorporate both infant face and cry stimuli. Three structural and resting-state brain studies as a function of maternal substance use are also reported. CONCLUSIONS. While human neuroimaging research converges in showing that maternal substance use is associated with differential reactivity to infant affective cues, further multi-level/multi-modal, longitudinal, and dimensional research is critically needed to advance this area of investigation.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unanticipated and uncontrollable chronic stressor that is detrimental to the mental and behavioral health of children and families, particularly those from disadvantaged and marginalized backgrounds. Chronic stress impairs a myriad of prefrontal cortical functions, important for coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, and has consequences on dyadic parent-child functioning. Informed by neuroscience and clinical evidence, sensitive parenting is a vital avenue of intervention that buffers against the toxic effects of COVID-19 on parent-child mental health. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we first discuss the neurobiological, psychological, and behavioral mechanisms behind exacerbated mental health risks in families. We then highlight the role of sensitive parenting as a buffer against stress-related mental health problems, and conclude with recommendations for systemic-, family-, and individual-interventions to most effectively address stress-related mental health problems and their impact on children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

This study investigated theory of mind (ToM) development in 83 children aged 3-5 years and its associations with parental reflective functioning (PRF), using a multidimensional and developmental approach. Results showed that ToM dimensions (i.e., affective, belief-desire, and cognitive) gradually increased with age. All dimensions of PRF (i.e., prementalizing modes, certainty about mental states, and interest and curiosity in mental states) were associated with ToM dimensions, with different dimensions being differentially related to ToM, including age-related effects.

Adolescents and young adults who ride with an impaired driver (RWI) and drive while impaired (DWI) are at considerable risk for crash-related injury and death (National Center for Statistics and An...

Maternal attachment security is an important predictor of caregiving . However, little is known regarding the neurobiological mechanisms by which attachment influences processing of infant cues, a critical component of caregiving. We examined whether attachment security, measured by the Adult Attachment Interview, might relate to neural responses to infant cues using event-related potentials. Secure (

Differences in corticostriatal neural activity during feedback processing of rewards and losses have been separately related to cannabis and tobacco use but remain understudied relative to co-use in adolescents. Using high-density EEG (128 electrode system, 1000 Hz sampling), we examined event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by monetary reward, neutral, and loss feedback during performance on a non-learning four-choice guessing task in a sample of non-deprived daily-cigarette-smoking adolescents (n = 36) who used tobacco and cannabis regularly (TC adolescents), and non-smoking healthy control adolescents (HCs) (n = 29). Peak amplitudes and latencies of mediofrontal ERPs indexing feedback-related negativities (FRNs) were used as outcomes in repeated-measures ANOVAs. No differences in FRNs were observed between TC and HC adolescents. Within TC adolescents, cannabis-use and tobacco-use variables had distinct relationships with the FRN, with cannabis-related problem severity being positively correlated with FRN amplitude during reward feedback and tobacco-related problem severity being negatively correlated with FRN latency during non-loss feedback (i.e., reward and neutral). These findings suggest that co-occurring cannabis and tobacco use may have dissociable relationships with feedback processing relating to each drug and support an incentive salience model of addiction severity related to cannabis use in adolescents.

A recent commentary in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology emphasized the disproportionately adverse mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic (Purtle, 2020). While this perspective focused specifically on disparities in financial insecurity and grief stemming from disparities in COVID-19 mortality in adults, we expand this view to incorporate a developmental perspective of the pre-existing inequities experienced by children and families that have been magnified by COVID-19 in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic is an abrupt and chronic stressor that puts many children and adolescents at risk for developing mental and behavioral health disorders—particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds and marginalized communities, as the pandemic has illustrated in the U.S. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, these children were already more likely to experience severe economic hardship, lack access to quality education and other resources critical for coping with adversities, and be at increased risk for maltreatment and exposure to home or community violence, all of which can result in increased risk for adverse health outcomes (Nurius et al., 2015; Jones et al., 2018). Moreover, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) families in the U.S. face systemic racism and discrimination. These inequities are only magnified and perpetuated by the COVID-19 pandemic (Figure 1) (Beaunoyer et al., 2020; Hooper et al., 2020; Turner Lee, 2020a; Van Dorn et al., 2020). Open in a separate window Figure 1 The COVID-19 pandemic magnifies and exacerbates existing inequities (left) for disadvantaged children and families in the United States (indicated by thicker arrows in right), thereby placing them at greater risk for recurring suboptimal health outcomes and exacerbation of existing inequities. The asterisks (*) denote increased risk factors for disadvantaged children and families during COVID-19, which are not mutually exclusive. These are also potential points for intervention.

It is vital that new mothers quickly and accurately recognize their child's facial expressions. There is evidence that during pregnancy women develop enhanced processing of facial features associated with infancy and distress, as these cues signal vulnerability and are therefore biologically salient. In this study, 51 pregnant women at 17-36 weeks gestation watched neutral infant and adult faces gradually morph into either happy or sad expressions. We measured the speed and accuracy with which participants were able to recognize facial affect (happy vs. sad) across facial ages (infant vs. adult). Participants were faster and more accurate at recognizing happy versus sad faces and adult versus infant faces. We discuss how prior exposure to a certain face type may explain faster recognition. We also consider these results in the context of evidence indicating positive affect is recognized more quickly, but associated with slower attention and detection.

Background and objectives Exposure to early-life trauma may lead to maladaptive characteristics such as alexithymia, and thus to poorer emotional regulation. This relationship may also be influenced by exposure to substances prenatally. We hypothesized that increased alexithymia would be seen in those with prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE). Additionally, we hypothesized that early-life trauma would be associated with alexithymia, and that alexithymia would be associated with poor emotional reappraisal and emotional suppression. Methods A moderated mediation model was developed to examine whether the hypothesized indirect relationship between trauma and emotional reappraisal through alexithymia was different in young adults with and without PCE (Total N = 57). Thirty-seven young adults with PCE and 20 with no such exposure, all of whom were members of a longitudinal cohort, were recruited for the study, and data concerning childhood trauma, alexithymia, and emotional regulation were collected. Intercorrelations were performed between the scores on each measure and moderated mediation models were constructed separately with emotional neglect or emotional abuse as the independent variable and emotional reappraisal or emotional suppression as the dependent variable. Results PCE status was associated with alexithymia, and alexithymia mediated the relationship between emotional neglect and emotional reappraisal in individuals with PCE but not those without. Discussion and conclusions The data suggest that alexithymia is a mechanism underlying poor use of emotional reappraisal in PCE individuals. Scientific significance Individuals with early-life trauma and substance exposure may represent a vulnerable population, and alexithymia may play a key role in the development of emotional regulation skills in this population. (Am J Addict 2020;29:492-499).

In this article, we describe the results of the second phase of a randomized controlled trial of Minding the Baby (MTB), an interdisciplinary reflective parenting intervention for infants and their families. Young first-time mothers living in underserved, poor, urban communities received intensive home visiting services from a nurse and social worker team for 27 months, from pregnancy to the child's second birthday. Results indicate that MTB mothers' levels of reflective functioning was more likely to increase over the course of the intervention than were those of control group mothers. Likewise, infants in the MTB group were significantly more likely to be securely attached, and significantly less likely to be disorganized, than infants in the control group. We discuss our findings in terms of their contribution to understanding the impacts and import of intensive intervention with vulnerable families during the earliest stages of parenthood in preventing the intergenerational transmission of disrupted relationships and insecure attachment.

Emotion regulation encapsulates the capability to successfully manage an ongoing emotional experience, particularly in social interactions, and thus may be especially significant to early parent-child relationships. In particular, the capacity to adjust emotions may support parental mentalization and reflective functioning – how parents think about their own and their child’s mental states and how these mental states effect behavior. To examine this issue, we investigated the association between emotion regulation, emotion dysregulation, and parental reflective functioning in a maternal sample (N = 97). We found that mothers with higher tendencies to suppress their emotions and who had more difficulties with emotion regulation engaged in greater levels of pre-mentalizing (i.e., a non-mentalizing mode). Mothers with poorer emotional awareness also evidenced less interest and curiosity in their child’s mental states. Finally, mothers who reported greater difficulty setting goals also evidenced a reduced capacity to recognize that their infant’s mental states are not directly observable. Taken together, our findings support the relationship between different aspects of emotion regulation and maternal reflective functioning, suggesting that emotion regulation should be integrated in empirical and intervention work that targets maternal mentalization.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Parental brain research primarily employs general-linear-model-based (GLM-based) analyses to assess blood-oxygenation-level-dependent responses to infant auditory and visual cues, reporting common responses in shared cortical and subcortical structures. However, this approach does not reveal intermixed neural substrates related to different sensory modalities. We consider this notion in studying the parental brain. RECENT FINDINGS: Spatial independent component analysis (sICA) has been used to separate mixed source signals from overlapping functional networks. We explore relative differences between GLM-based analysis and sICA as applied to an fMRI dataset acquired from women while they listened to infant cries or viewed infant sad faces. SUMMARY: There is growing appreciation for the value of moving beyond GLM-based analyses to consider brain functional organization as continuous, distributive, and overlapping gradients of neural substrates related to different sensory modalities. Preliminary findings suggest sICA can be applied to the study of the parental brain.

Approximately twenty percent of female and ten percent of male adolescents report violence in their dating relationships and there is a significant association between dating violence in adolescence and later perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV) in adulthood. Identification of factors associated with dating violence can inform intervention and prevention efforts. This study was designed to examine the associations of early childhood maltreatment experience and involvement in adolescent dating violence. It also aimed to identify the moderating effect of insecure attachment styles on these associations. One hundred fifty adolescent who participated in a larger longitudinal study on prenatal drug exposure participated in this study. Participants completed self-report measures of childhood maltreatment at a standard follow-up visit between the ages of 15-19 years. Approximately 18 month later, they completed questionnaires on their attachment styles and level of dating violence perpetration and victimization. Hierarchical regression modeling revealed a significant main effect for childhood abuse but not insecure attachment on perpetration and victimization of dating violence. Avoidant attachment significantly moderated the relationship between childhood abuse exposure and dating violence: For adolescents who reported an avoidant attachment style, an increase in the level of experienced childhood maltreatment predicted significantly higher increases in victimization by dating violence, compared to those did not have avoidant attachment. Results suggest adolescents with child maltreatment history and avoidant attachment styles may be at higher risk for involvement in dating violence and support intervention efforts for fostering attachment relationship to attenuate the association between early exposures to maltreatment and involvement in dating violence later.

Psychopathy is a cluster of personality traits associated with high rates of aggression. While research on psychopathic traits largely focuses on neurobiological factors implicated in aggression, other research suggests that contextual factors, such as social exclusion, also contribute to promoting aggression. Yet, the relationships among psychopathic traits, neural processing of exclusion, and aggression remain unknown. A sample of 76 adolescents and young adults completed Cyberball, a task involving conditions of social inclusion, ambiguous exclusion, and unambiguous exclusion. During Cyberball, a slow wave (SW) event-related potential (an index of elaborative processing) and self-reported anger were measured. Additionally, acts of real-world aggression were assessed. Results indicated that as psychopathic traits increased, SW during ambiguous exclusion also increased, but SW during inclusion decreased. However, the combination of smaller SW during ambiguous exclusion and higher psychopathic traits predicted heightened anger following Cyberball and more frequent real-world aggression. This response to social exclusion among individuals with elevated psychopathic traits may represent an unreflective, reactive style that exacerbates anger and aggression in certain contexts. These data suggest that neurobiological dysfunction in elaborative processing is related to psychopathic traits, and social context comprises another important influence on the aggression of individuals with elevated psychopathic traits.

Prior reproductive experience, or parity, may contribute to differential neural responses to infant stimuli during pregnancy. We examined the P300 elicited by viewing infant and adult faces, as well as houses, in women pregnant with their first child and compared their neural responses to women who had at least one child prior to their current pregnancy. We found the P300 amplitude was larger in women pregnant with their first child as compared to pregnant women who had previously had children. This larger P300 was observed in response to all visual stimuli and was not specific to infant faces. Taken together, these findings indicate increased sensitivity toward social and non-social stimuli in pregnancy and indicate the importance of measuring parity in social neuroscience studies of pregnancy and motherhood.

Tactile interactions are of developmental importance to social and emotional interactions across species. In beginning to understand the affective component of tactile stimulation, research has begun to elucidate the neural mechanisms that underscore slow, affective touch. Here, we extended this emerging body of work and examined whether affective touch (C tactile [CT]-optimal speed), as compared to nonaffective touch (non-CT-optimal speed) and no touch conditions, modulated EEG oscillations. We report an attenuation in alpha and beta activity to affective and nonaffective touch relative to the no touch condition. Further, we found an attenuation in theta activity specific to the affective, as compared to the nonaffective touch and no touch conditions. Similar to theta, we also observed an attenuation of beta oscillations during the affective touch condition, although only in parietal scalp sites. Decreased activity in theta and parietal-beta ranges may reflect attentional-emotional regulatory mechanisms; however, future work is needed to provide insight into the potential neural coupling between theta and beta and their specific role in encoding slow, tactile stimulation.

The objective was to explore the preliminary functioning of a self-report questionnaire designed to assess parental reflective functioning (PRFQ, Luyten et al., 2009, unpublished manual) during early postnatal phase and with a large population-based sample. Parental reflective functioning (PRF) refers to parental capacity to focus on experience and feelings, within self, in the child and underlying observed reactions. Individual differences in PRF reportedly affect child attachment and socio-emotional development. Cost-effective tools to assess key areas of early parenting are needed for both research and clinical purposes. The factor structure of a 36-item version suitable for early postnatal phase was explored using population-based data from the Finn Brain Birth Cohort Study (425 mothers and 237 fathers). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis resulted in a 14-item version comprising four factors capturing relevant aspects of early PRF. The factor structure was further tested with separate participants from the cohort (1030 mothers and 422 fathers). Mothers tended to score higher than fathers in PRF. Among mothers, parity, age, and financial situation were associated with postnatal mentalization. Level of education was associated with postnatal mentalization in both genders. The 14-item PRFQ-Fi has potential to serve as a new screening tool for very early parenting.

Recent research has suggested a role for the hormone oxytocin in social cognition and behavior. Administration of intranasal oxytocin modulates multiple brain regions during experimental tasks; however, the neural mechanisms that underscore the changes associated with oxytocin administration are yet to be fully elucidated. In a double-blind placebo controlled design using electroencephalography, the effects of intranasal oxytocin on neural oscillations (delta, theta, alpha, beta) and their coupling during the resting state were examined. Prior work suggested that coupling of slow and fast waves are indicative of the integration of motivational and cognitive processes. While neural oscillations were unaffected by oxytocin relative to placebo administration; oxytocin decreased delta-beta, delta-alpha, theta-alpha, and theta-beta coupling. These findings suggest that one mechanism through which intranasal oxytocin may modulate brain and behavior is through affecting the cross-frequency coupling of neural oscillations, a phenomenon that has been associated with specific cognitive and motivational states.

Parental reflective functioning (PRF) describes a parent’s capacity for considering both their own and their child’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which can help parents to guide interactions with children. Given the cognitive demands of keeping infants in mind whilst caregiving, we examined the association between aspects of executive function (i.e., working memory and set-shifting) and PRF (employing the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire) in recent mothers. In Study 1 (N = 50), we found that better working memory was associated with higher levels of maternal interest and curiosity in their child’s feelings. In Study 2 (N = 68), we found that visual working memory and set-shifting capacity were also associated with higher levels of maternal interest and curiosity in their child’s thoughts and feelings. Our results provide preliminary support for the association between executive processes and maternal reflective functioning. The implications of these findings and important future directions are discussed, including advancing our understanding of executive processes and PRF to support the broader family system.

Background Prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) is linked to addiction and obesity vulnerability. Neural responses to stressful and appetitive cues in adolescents with PCE versus those without have been differentially linked to substance-use initiation. However, no prior studies have assessed cue-reactivity responses among PCE adolescents using a connectivity-based approach. Methods Twenty-two PCE and 22 non-prenatally drug-exposed (NDE) age-, sex-, IQ- and BMI-matched adolescents participated in individualized guided imagery with appetitive (favorite-food), stressful and neutral-relaxing cue scripts during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subjective favorite-food craving scores were collected before and after script exposure. A data-driven voxel-wise intrinsic connectivity distribution analysis was used to identify between-group differences and examine relationships with craving scores. Results A group-by-cue interaction effect identified a parietal lobe cluster where PCE versus NDE adolescents showed less connectivity during stressful and more connectivity during neutral-relaxing conditions. Follow-up seed-based connectivity analyses revealed that, among PCE adolescents, the parietal seed was positively connected to inferior parietal and sensory areas and negatively connected to corticolimbic during both stress and neutral-relaxing conditions. For NDE, greater parietal connectivity to parietal, cingulate and sensory areas and lesser parietal connectivity to medial prefrontal areas were found during stress compared to neutral-relaxing cueing. Craving scores inversely correlated with corticolimbic connectivity in PCE, but not NDE adolescents, during the favorite-food condition. Conclusions Findings from this first data-driven intrinsic connectivity analysis of PCE influences on adolescent brain function indicate differences relating to PCE status and craving. These findings provide insight into the developmental impact of in utero drug exposure.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) have been widely employed to identify different stages of face processing, with recent research probing the neural dynamics of adult's processing of infant faces. Infant faces represent a salient category of visual stimuli, especially in parents, likely prioritized for processing through activity of the oxytocinergic system. Here we employed a randomized, double-blind, and within-subject crossover study of 24 non-parent women to examine the impact of intranasal oxytocin administration, relative to placebo, on processing infant and adult faces. Our main finding was that, relative to placebo, the P300 ERP elicited by infant faces was greater than the P300 elicited by adult faces in the oxytocin condition. Therefore, oxytocin administration may enhance the allocation of attention towards infant cues, even in non-parent women.

Extant research documents impaired language among children with prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) relative to nondrug exposed (NDE) children, suggesting that cocaine alters development of neurobiological systems that support language. The current study examines behavioral and neural (electrophysiological) indices of language function in older adolescents. Specifically, we compare performance of PCE (N = 59) and NDE (N = 51) adolescents on a battery of cognitive and linguistic assessments that tap word reading, reading comprehension, semantic and grammatical processing, and IQ. In addition, we examine event related potential (ERP) responses in in a subset of these children across three experimental tasks that examine word level phonological processing (rhyme priming), word level semantic processing (semantic priming), and sentence level semantic processing (semantic anomaly). Findings reveal deficits across a number of reading and language assessments, after controlling for socioeconomic status and exposure to other substances. Additionally, ERP data reveal atypical orthography to phonology mapping (reduced N1/P2 response) and atypical rhyme and semantic processing (N400 response). These findings suggest that PCE continues to impact language and reading skills into the late teenage years.

Maternal addiction constitutes a major public health problem affecting children, with high rates of abuse, neglect, and foster care placement. However, little is known about the ways in which substance addiction alters brain function related to maternal behavior. Prior studies have shown that infant face cues activate similar dopamine-associated brain reward regions to substances of abuse. Here, we report on a functional MRI study documenting that mothers with addictions demonstrate reduced activation of reward regions when shown reward-related cues of their own infants. Thirty-six mothers receiving inpatient treatment for substance addiction were scanned at 6 months postpartum, while viewing happy and sad face images of their own infant compared to those of a matched unknown infant. When viewing happy face images of their own infant, mothers with addictions showed a striking pattern of decreased activation in dopamine- and oxytocin-innervated brain regions, including the hypothalamus, ventral striatum, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex-regions in which increased activation has previously been observed in mothers without addictions. Our results are the first to demonstrate that mothers with addictions show reduced activation in key reward regions of the brain in response to their own infant's face cues. Hum Brain Mapp 38:5421-5439, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Addiction remains a significant public health concern that affects multiple generations within families, and in particular the early relationship between parents and their developing child. This article will discuss recent advances in our understanding of the neurobiology of parenting and addiction. Specifically, the discussion will focus on the reward-stress dysregulation model of addicted parenting, which proposes that the dysregulation of stress and reward neural circuits by addiction represents a neurobiological pathway through which to understand how caregiving may be compromised in addicted parents. Empirical research in parents and non-parents will be discussed in support of this model and critical consideration of the model and its limitations will be provided.

Background Prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) is associated with risk-taking behaviors, including increased initiation of substance use in adolescence. The neurobiological underpinnings of these behaviors in adolescents with PCE are not well understood. The goal of this study was to compare diffusion-weighted imaging data between adolescents with and without PCE using crossing-fiber models, which may provide more comprehensive estimates of white-matter microstructure within regions of multiple (e.g., primary and secondary) fiber orientations. Methods Thirty-nine PCE individuals and 17 comparably aged prenatally non-drug-exposed (NDE) youths were recruited from a longitudinal cohort followed since birth. White matter was examined using tensor-derived and crossing-fiber models. Whole-brain investigations were performed, as were analyses on seven white-matter regions, which included the splenium, body and genu of the corpus callosum, bilateral cingulum, and the right and left superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF). Results Whole-brain analyses revealed no group differences. However, ROI analyses for anisotropy estimates derived from the crossing-fiber model revealed significant group differences for secondary fibers, with reduced anisotropy among PCE adolescents compared to prenatally non-exposed youth in the right cingulum and the left SLF, and increased anisotropy in the genu. Conclusions Our findings suggest that white-matter differences in PCE adolescents are subtle and localized primarily within secondary fiber orientations, perhaps arising from altered white-matter development.

Mothers with histories of alcohol and drug addiction have shown greater difficulty parenting young children than mothers with no history of substance misuse. This study was the second randomized clinical trial testing the efficacy of Mothering From the Inside Out (MIO), a 12-week mentalization-based individual therapy designed to address psychological deficits commonly associated with chronic substance use that also interfere with the capacity to parent young children. Eighty-seven mothers caring for a child between 11 and 60 months of age were randomly assigned to receive 12 sessions of MIO versus 12 sessions of parent education (PE), a psychoeducation active control comparison. Maternal reflective functioning, representations of caregiving, mother–child interaction quality, and child attachment were evaluated at baseline and posttreatment and 3-month follow-up. Mother–child interaction quality was assessed again at 12-month follow-up. In comparison with PE mothers, MIO mothers demonstrated a higher capacity for reflective functioning and representational coherence at posttreatment and 3-month follow-up. At 12-month follow-up, compared to PE cohorts, MIO mothers demonstrated greater sensitivity, their children showed greater involvement, and MIO dyads showed greater reciprocity. As addiction severity increased, MIO also appeared to serve as a protective factor for maternal reflective functioning, quality of mother–child interactions, and child attachment status. Results demonstrate the promise of mentalization-based interventions provided concomitant with addiction treatment for mothers and their young children.

Women are vulnerable to anxiety during pregnancy and postpartum. However, little is known about antenatal anxiety and neural processing of infant-relevant information. In this experiment, the N170, P300, and LPP (late positive potential) event-related potentials were measured from 43 pregnant women as they viewed infant and adult faces, which were either neutral or distressed in expression. Mother's self-reported anxiety levels were also assessed. The N170 was comparable across face conditions and was not associated with anxiety. However, our central finding was that greater levels of antenatal anxiety were associated with a larger LPP, but only for neutral infant faces. Results suggest that antenatal anxiety may result in deeper processing of neutral, emotionally ambiguous, infant faces during pregnancy. These findings are discussed in light of other work indicating an interpretive bias toward threat in response to neutral stimuli in anxiety.

This paper reviews recent theoretical, empirical, and clinical work related to parental reflective functioning (PRF) or parental mentalizing. PRF refers to the capacity of the parent to envision his or her child as being motivated by internal mental states such as feelings, wishes, and desires, and to be able to reflect on his or her own internal mental experiences and how they are shaped and changed by interactions with the child. This paper first briefly discusses the historical and theoretical background of this concept and its purported role in child development, with a focus on the development of child attachment, affect regulation, and mentalizing. It then reviews recent thinking and research in four areas: (1) the neurobiology underlying PRF, (2) the multidimensionality of PRF, (3) the relationship between PRF and trauma, and (4) the broader relevance of attention to internal mental states for the development of epistemic trust as the basis of an evolutionary inbuilt capacity for learning f...

Motherhood is a unique transitional period in adulthood accompanied by distinct changes in the mind and brain. Although psychoanalytic and neuroscientific theory employ different levels of abstraction and methodology, there could be value in considering the synergy between the two fields for understanding this critical transitional period for women. Here, we review this literature and present a joint model of the neurobiological and psychic reorganization that might occur to support motherhood. Our approach highlights the value of considering multiple perspectives theoretically, as well as clinically, given the insight of neuroscience and psychoanalysis to the development and refinement of parenting interventions.

Multiple lines of inquiry, including experimental animal models, have recently converged to suggest that executive functioning (EF) may be one mechanism by which parenting behavior is transmitted across generations. In the current investigation, we empirically test this notion by examining relations between maternal EF and parenting behaviors during mother-infant interactions, and by examining the role of maternal EF in the intergenerational transmission of parenting behavior. Mother-infant dyads (N = 150) in a longitudinal study participated. Mothers were administered measures of EF (working memory and inhibition), reported on the parenting they received from their parents (i.e., the infants' maternal grandparents), and were observed interacting with their 8-month-old infants. SEM findings indicated that the negative parenting mothers received from their own parents was significantly related to poorer maternal EF, and that poorer maternal EF was significantly related to subsequent engagement in more negative parenting practices (e.g., intrusiveness, displays of negativity) with their own infant. A significant indirect effect, through maternal EF, was observed between maternal report of her experiences of negative parenting received while growing up and her own use of negative parenting practices. Our findings make two contributions. First, we add to existing work that has primarily considered relations between parent EF and parenting behavior while interacting with older children by showing that maternal EF affects children, via maternal parenting behavior, beginning very early in life. Second, we provide key evidence of the role of EF in the intergenerational transmission of parenting. Additional implications of these findings, as well as important future directions, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

SYNOPSISObjective. Smoking has a detrimental impact on maternal physical health and exposes children to secondhand smoke, but the extent to which it affects maternal brain and behavior is not well-known and may have implications for parent and child development. We examined how current smoking status might relate to maternal neural responses to infant cues using event-related potentials. Design. Current smoking (n = 35) and non-smoking (n = 35) mothers viewed photographs of emotional infant faces while electroencephalography was simultaneously recorded. Results. The latency of the face-specific N170 event-related potential component was delayed in smoking mothers compared to non-smoking mothers, and the P300 was differentiated by smoking status. Conclusions. Postpartum smoking is associated with event-related potential measures that may reflect modulation of infant face perception in motherhood.

Recent work has identified links between mothers’ self-regulation and emotion regulation (ER) and children’s social-emotional outcomes. However, associations between maternal ER strategies (e.g., reappraisal, suppression), known to influence internalizing problems in adults, and children’s negative affect (NA) have not been considered. In the current study, the direct and indirect relationships, through maternal internalizing problems, between maternal use of ER strategies and infant NA are examined. The potential effects of infant NA on maternal internalizing difficulties are also considered. Ninety-nine mothers and their infants participated across three time points during the first year postpartum. Higher maternal suppression was indirectly related to higher infant NA, through maternal internalizing problems; lower maternal reappraisal also was indirectly related to higher infant NA through maternal internalizing problems. Infant NA at four months postpartum was related to mothers’ internalizing problems 6 months postpartum. The implications of these findings for future research and intervention are discussed.

The transition to parenthood marks a significant developmental period for the mother. Clinical and preclinical studies evidence neural and hormonal changes that support maternal behavior that is critical to infant survival and development. These changes suggest marked plasticity as a result of reproduction in the mother. Furthermore, multiple reproductive experiences may contribute to long-lasting changes to support more efficient and competent caregiving with subsequent pregnancies and births. However, less is known about neural, hormonal, and behavioral changes that occur as a function of parity-the number of children a woman has. Here, we highlight behavioral, neural, and hormonal changes that occur as women transition to parenthood, with a special emphasis on parity-related changes. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed, as well as clinical implications to be considered in light of parity research.

Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. SYNOPSIS: Parenting has a significant and lasting impact on child development. From birth, parents must sensitively and appropriately attend to their infant’s emotional expressions and vocalizations. Accumulating evidence indicates that these infant cues of emotion attract more attention than equivalent adult cues in parents as well as non-parents. We review this evidence and suggest that infant cues hold high incentive value and elicit motivated attention (i.e., enhanced processing of motivationally relevant stimuli), which in turn promotes approach motivation and thus caregiving responses. Further, we discuss data suggesting that infant cues are salient for non-parents, with increasing motivated attention to infant cues in the transition to parenthood. This increase may depend on interactions between the dopamine reward system and the neuropeptide oxytocin. Therefore, we also explore the human and non-human data that support this association and consider potential sources of variability in motivated attention in parents.

Parental reflective functioning refers to the capacity for a parent to understand their own and their infant's mental states, and how these mental states relate to behavior. Higher levels of parental reflective functioning may be associated with greater sensitivity to infant emotional signals in fostering adaptive and responsive caregiving. We investigated this hypothesis by examining associations between parental reflective functioning and neural correlates of infant face and cry perception using event-related potentials (ERPs) in a sample of recent mothers. We found both early and late ERPs were associated with different components of reflective functioning. These findings suggest that parental reflective functioning may be associated with the neural correlates of infant cue perception and further support the value of enhancing reflective functioning as a mechanism in parenting intervention programs.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by impaired sensorimotor gating, as measured using prepulse inhibition (PPI). This effect may be related to abnormalities in the serotonin (5-HT) system. 5-HT1B agonists can impair PPI, produce OCD-like behaviors in animals, and exacerbate OCD symptoms in humans. We measured 5-HT1B receptor availability using (11)C-P943 positron emission tomography (PET) in unmedicated, non-depressed OCD patients (n=12) and matched healthy controls (HC; n=12). Usable PPI data were obtained from 20 of these subjects (10 from each group). There were no significant main effects of OCD diagnosis on 5-HT1B receptor availability ((11)C-P943 BPND); however, the relationship between PPI and (11)C-P943 BPND differed dramatically and significantly between groups. 5-HT1B receptor availability in the basal ganglia and thalamus correlated positively with PPI in controls; these correlations were lost or even reversed in the OCD group. In cortical regions there were no significant correlations with PPI in controls, but widespread positive correlations in OCD patients. Positive correlations between 5-HT1B receptor availability and PPI were consistent across diagnostic groups only in two structures, the orbitofrontal cortex and the amygdala. Differential associations of 5-HT1B receptor availability with PPI in patients suggest functionally important alterations in the serotonergic regulation of cortical/subcortical balance in OCD.

Multiple interventions have been developed to improve the caregiver-child relationship as a buffer to the effects of early life adversity and toxic stress. However, relatively few studies have evaluated the long-term effects of these early childhood interventions, particularly on parenting and childhood behaviors. Here we describe the early school-age follow-up results of a randomized controlled trial of Minding the Baby ® (MTB), a reflective, attachment-based, trauma-informed, preventive home-visiting intervention for first-time mothers and their infants. Results indicate that mothers who participated in MTB are less likely to show impaired mentalizing compared to control mothers two to eight years after the intervention ended. Additionally, MTB mothers have lower levels of hostile and coercive parenting, and their children have lower total and externalizing problem behavior scores when compared to controls at follow-up. We discuss our findings in terms of their contribution to understanding the long-term parenting and childhood socio-emotional developmental effects of early preventive interventions for stressed populations.

Psychoanalytic perspectives on parenting and child development have been well articulated in the literature. With advances in neuroimaging methods, recent interest has focused on the neural circuits that may support caregiving in human subjects. In this issue, we consider the value of psychodynamic and neuroscientific perspectives as they pertain to the complex but critical transition to motherhood, and the value of this interdisciplinary approach to probing parental reflective functioning and pathways to the intergenerational transmission of trauma.

Maternal responsivity is important to caregiving, reflecting a mother's capacity to initiate prompt behavioural responses to infant's cues, supporting the infant's own regulatory development. There is limited research examining cognitive and affective processes, including working memory and emotion regulation, in the context of maternal responsivity to infant distress. Therefore, we examined associations between working memory, emotion regulation, and behavioural responsivity to simulated infant distress in 61 mothers. Tests of direct and indirect effects showed (1) greater working memory capacity predicted increased engagement in cognitive reappraisal; (2) increased engagement in cognitive reappraisal predicted longer latency to pick-up a distressed infant simulator; and (3) greater working memory capacity indirectly, through increased engagement in cognitive reappraisal, predicted longer latency to infant distress. These findings indicate the importance of jointly considering maternal working memory and emotion regulation to understand their potential role in the assessment of, and behavioural response to, infant distress cues.

Converging evidence demonstrates increased levels of sensitivity to infant faces in mothers. This may be reflective of a series of psychological and neurobiological changes that occur in the transition to, and during early, parenthood for the purpose of appropriate caregiving; however, this enhanced infant facial recognition is in contrast with the general adult literature regarding facial processing. In the current study, we aimed to replicate a prior study of emotion facial recognition in pregnant women in a sample of mothers with children under a year old, utilizing a paradigm in which adult and infant faces gradually changed from neutral expressions to either happy or sad expressions. Mothers were faster at the recognition of adult faces in comparison to infant faces, and were also faster at happy faces in comparison to sad faces. Results are discussed in context of the current processing literature regarding the perinatal period, and implications for the persistence of the own-age bias and happy face advantage are considered.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder associated with callous, impulsive, and antisocial behaviors. Decades of research indicate that individuals higher on psychopathy exhibit abnormal allocation of attention during goal pursuit. However, the manner in which attention is allocated to goal-relevant information and the downstream neurocognitive consequences of this attention abnormality remain unclear. The present study addresses this gap by examining the relationship between psychopathy and the allocation of attention during an electroencephalogram (EEG)-based continuous performance task in a sample of 61 adolescents and young adults. Results indicate that individuals higher on psychopathy overallocate attention to visual cues during the task (i.e., enhanced parieto-occipital alpha suppression), and this overallocation of attention reduces the neural resources required for motor control (i.e., blunted central alpha activity during NoGo trials). Psychopathy appears related to a unique pattern of attention allocation that prioritizes neural resources for goal-relevant information, resulting in alterations in the neural response for downstream cognitive functions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).