Helena J V Rutherford1, Sarah W Yip2, Patrick D Worhunsky3, Sohye Kim4, Lane Strathearn5, Marc N Potenza6, Linda C Mayes7. 1. Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06520, United States. Electronic address: helena.rutherford@yale.edu. 2. Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06520, United States; Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, United States. 3. Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, United States. 4. Departments of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, United States; Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, University of Massachusetts Medical School, United States; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine, United States. 5. Stead Family Department of Pediatrics, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, United States; Center for Disabilities and Development, University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital, Iowa City, IA, 52242, United States. 6. Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06520, United States; Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, United States; Department of Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, United States; The Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, Wethersfield, CT, 06109, United States; The Connecticut Mental Health Center, New Haven, CT, 06519, United States. 7. Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06520, United States.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Maternal substance use and addiction has been associated with negative consequences for parenting and may increase addiction vulnerability in the developing child. Neuroimaging research suggests that substance use may decrease the reward of caring for infants and heighten stress reactivity to affective infant cues. METHODS: Thirty-two substance-using mothers and twenty-two non-substance-using mothers were presented with emotional face and cry stimuli generated from their own and a demographically matched unknown infant during fMRI scanning. Between-group differences in neural activity during task performance were assessed using whole-brain, mixed-effects models corrected for multiple comparisons (voxel-level p < 0.001, pFWE<0.05). RESULTS: Relative to non-substance-using mothers, substance-using mothers exhibited greater activation when viewing their own infant's face as compared to an unknown infant's face across multiple brain regions, including superior medial frontal, inferior parietal, and middle temporal regions. Substance-using mothers also had a decreased response to sad infant faces in the ventral striatum relative to the non-substance-using mothers. Neural responses to own vs. unknown infant cries did not significantly differ between substance-using and non-substance-using mothers. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest overlapping cortical and subcortical brain regions implicated in responding to infant faces, with activation differences related to infant familiarity, emotional expression, and maternal substance use. While prior work has focused on attenuated neural responses to infant cues, greater attention is needed toward understanding the increased reactivity to affective infant cues observed in substance-using mothers.
BACKGROUND: Maternal substance use and addiction has been associated with negative consequences for parenting and may increase addiction vulnerability in the developing child. Neuroimaging research suggests that substance use may decrease the reward of caring for infants and heighten stress reactivity to affective infant cues. METHODS: Thirty-two substance-using mothers and twenty-two non-substance-using mothers were presented with emotional face and cry stimuli generated from their own and a demographically matched unknown infant during fMRI scanning. Between-group differences in neural activity during task performance were assessed using whole-brain, mixed-effects models corrected for multiple comparisons (voxel-level p < 0.001, pFWE<0.05). RESULTS: Relative to non-substance-using mothers, substance-using mothers exhibited greater activation when viewing their own infant's face as compared to an unknown infant's face across multiple brain regions, including superior medial frontal, inferior parietal, and middle temporal regions. Substance-using mothers also had a decreased response to sad infant faces in the ventral striatum relative to the non-substance-using mothers. Neural responses to own vs. unknown infant cries did not significantly differ between substance-using and non-substance-using mothers. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest overlapping cortical and subcortical brain regions implicated in responding to infant faces, with activation differences related to infant familiarity, emotional expression, and maternal substance use. While prior work has focused on attenuated neural responses to infant cues, greater attention is needed toward understanding the increased reactivity to affective infant cues observed in substance-using mothers.
Authors: D V Sheehan; Y Lecrubier; K H Sheehan; P Amorim; J Janavs; E Weiller; T Hergueta; R Baker; G C Dunbar Journal: J Clin Psychiatry Date: 1998 Impact factor: 4.384
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