Infant affect response in the face-to-face still face among Chinese- and European American mother-infant dyads

Early face-to-face interactions with caregivers allow infants to learn how to express and exchange emotions with others. Within the field, however, the research regarding infant regulatory processes across cultures remains limited. The Double Face-to-Face Still Face (FFSF) paradigm provided an opportunity to examine infant affect in dyadic interactions with European American (EA, n = 54) and Chinese American (CA, n = 48) infants and caregivers. Consistent with our hypothesis that CA infants are less reactive than EA infants, CA infants in our study showed less negative and more neutral affect compared to EA infants. We also examined the number of infants who were unable to complete the full FFSF paradigm due to high levels of distress (e.g., 30-sec of sustained hard cries). Compared to EA infants, more CA infants were unable to complete the paradigm due to negative affect (e.g., sustained cries). Analyses showed an association between mothers’ negative affect from the start of the paradigm with infant incompletion of the paradigm. These findings point to cultural differences in infant affect within the FFSF. As well, researchers should consider the characteristics of infants who do not complete the FFSF paradigm as they can provide meaningful data in understanding infant affect and regulation. Taken together, our findings suggest that the Double FFSF paradigm provides a reasonable threshold for distinguishing infants on their ability to regulate during a repeated social stressor.     

A dynamic system analysis of dyadic flexibility and stability across the Face-to-Face Still-Face procedure: Application of the State Space Grid

The Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) paradigm allows to study the mother–infant dyad as a dynamic system coping with social stress perturbations. The State Space Grid (SSG) method is thought to depict both flexibility and stability of the dyad across perturbations, but previous SSG evidence for the FFSF is limited. The main aims were: (1) to investigate mother–infant dyadic flexibility and stability across the FFSF using the SSG; (2) to evaluate the influence of dyadic functioning during Play on infant Still-Face response and of infant stress response in affecting dyadic functioning during Reunion. Forty 4-month-old infants and their mothers were micro-analytically coded during a FFSF and eight SSG dyadic states were obtained. Dyadic flexibility and attractor states were assessed during Play and Reunion. Infants’ stress response was coded as negative engagement during the Still-Face episode. Two dyadic states, “maternal hetero-regulation” and “affective mismatch”, showed significant changes in the number of visits from Play to Reunion. During Play “maternal positive support to infant play” emerged as attractor state, whereas during Reunion a second attractor emerged, namely “affective mismatch”. Dyadic affective mismatch during Play correlated with infants’ negative engagement during Still-Face, whereas infants’ response to Still-Face resulted in minor social matching during Reunion. Findings provide new insights into the flexible, yet stable, functioning of the mother–infant dyad as a dynamic system. Evidence of a reciprocal influence between dyadic functioning and infant social stress response are discussed.     

Associations between mother-infant bed-sharing practices and infant affect and behavior during the still-face paradigm

Parents in the United States increasingly report bed-sharing with their infants (i.e., sleeping on a shared sleep surface), but the relationship between bed-sharing and child socioemotional outcomes are not well understood. The current study examines the links between mother-infant bed-sharing at 3 months and infant affect and behavior during a dyadic challenge task at 6 months. Further, we examine nighttime mother-infant contact at 3 months as a possible mechanism that may mediate linkages between bed-sharing and infant outcomes. Using observational data from a sample of 63 mother-infant dyads, we found that infants who bed-shared for any proportion of the observation period at 3 months displayed significantly more self-regulatory behaviors during the still-face episode of the Still-Face Paradigm (SFP) at 6 months, compared to non-bed-sharing infants. Also, infants of mothers who bed-shared for the entire observation period displayed significantly less negativity during the reunion episode than non-bed-sharing infants. There was no evidence that the relations between mother-infant bed-sharing practices and infant affect and behavior during the SFP were mediated through nighttime mother-infant contact. Results suggest that infant regulation at 6 months postpartum may vary based on early nighttime experiences, with bed-sharing potentially promoting more positive and well-regulated behavior during dyadic interaction.     

Maternal avoidance,anxiety cognitions and interactive behaviour predicts infant development at 12 months in the context of anxiety disorders in the postpartum period

BackgroundFew studies have examined the relation between anxiety disorders in the postpartum period and cognitive as well as language development in infancy.AimsThis longitudinal study investigated whether anxiety disorder in the postpartum period is linked to infant development at twelve months. A closer look was also taken at a possible link between maternal interaction and infant development.Study designSubjects were videotaped during a Face-to-Face-Still-Face interaction with their infant (M = 4.0 months). Specific maternal anxiety symptoms were measured by self-report questionnaires (Anxiety Cognition Questionnaire (ACQ), Body Sensations Questionnaire (BSQ), Mobility Inventory (MI)) to check for a connection with infant development. The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-III (Bayley-III) were used to assess infant language and cognitive development at one year of age.Subjectsn = 34 mothers with anxiety disorder (SCID-I; DSM-IV) and n = 47 healthy mothers with their infant.Outcome measuresInfant performance on Bayley-III language and cognitive scales.ResultsInfants of mothers with anxiety disorder yielded significantly lower language scores than infants of controls. No significant group differences were found regarding infant cognitive development. Exploratory analyses revealed the vital role of “maternal avoidance accompanied” in infant language and cognitive development. Maternal neutral engagement, which lacks positive affect and vocalisations, turned out as the strongest negative predictor of cognitive development. Maternal anxiety cognitions and joint activity in mother-infant interaction were the strongest predictors of infant language performance.ConclusionsResults underline the importance to also consider the interaction behaviour of women with anxiety disorders to prevent adverse infant development.     

Deep learning based liver cancer detection using watershed transform and Gaussian mixture model techniques

ObjectivesLiver cancer is one of the leading cause of death in all over the world. Detecting the cancer tissue manually is a difficult task and time consuming. Hence, a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) is used in decision making process for accurate detection for appropriate therapy. Therefore the main objective of this work is to detect the liver cancer accurately using automated method.MethodsIn this work, we have proposed a new system called as watershed Gaussian based deep learning (WGDL) technique for effective delineate the cancer lesion in computed tomography (CT) images of the liver. A total of 225 images were used in this work to develop the proposed model. Initially, the liver was separated using marker controlled watershed segmentation process and finally the cancer affected lesion was segmented using the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) algorithm. After tumor segmentation, various texture features were extracted from the segmented region. These segmented features were fed to deep neural network (DNN) classifier for automated classification of three types of liver cancer i.e. hemangioma (HEM), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and metastatic carcinoma (MET).ResultsWe have achieved a classification accuracy of 99.38%, Jaccard index of 98.18%, at 200 epochs using DNN classifier with a negligible validation loss of 0.062 during the classification process.ConclusionsOur developed system is ready to be tested with huge database and can aid the radiologist in detecting the liver cancer using CT images.     

The development of the still-face effect: Mothers do matter

The Face-to-Face Still-Face paradigm (FFSF) has been used to investigate how infants react to stressful events. However, there is little developmental data on the FFSF effect, and whether it connects to a specific relationship (e.g., to a mother versus a stranger). This prospective longitudinal study aims to evaluate developmental changes in infant reaction to the FFSF presented by the mother or a stranger at 2, 4, 6, and 8 months of age (n = 39). Results show that infant negativity was expressed less in relation to a stranger, the identity effect. Results further suggest that from 6 to 8 months of age, stranger induced protest flattens out; whereas mother induced protest decreases. The results are discussed in relation to different theories regarding infant responsiveness.     

The role of oxytocin in early mother-infant interactions: Variations in maternal affect attunement

The aim of the present research was to investigate the relationship between oxytocin and maternal affect attunement, as well as the role of affect attunement in the relationship between oxytocin and infant social engagement during early mother-infant interactions. Forty-three mother-infant dyads participated in the present study when infants were 4 months. They were observed during (1) a situation where no communication took place and (2) a natural interaction between mother and infant. During this procedure, three saliva samples from mothers and their infants were collected to determine their levels of oxytocin at different time points. Maternal affect attunement (maintaining attention, warm sensitivity) and infant interactive behaviors (gaze, positive, and negative affect) were coded during the natural interaction. Results indicated that overall maternal oxytocin functioning was negatively related to her warm sensitivity, while infant oxytocin reactivity together with maternal affect attunement were associated with infant positive social engagement with their mothers. Specifically, infant oxytocin reactivity was significantly related to their gazes at mother, but only for infants of highly attuned mothers. These results point to the complex role oxytocin plays in parent-infant interactions while emphasizing the need to analyze both overall oxytocin functioning as well as reactivity as different indices of human affiliative behavior.     

Infant brain responses to live face-to-face interaction with their mothers: Combining functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) with a modified still-face paradigm

BackgroundNon-invasive imaging techniques, such as fNIRS, allow us to shed light on the neural correlates of infant’s social-emotional development within the context of parent-infant interaction. On a behavioral level, numerous studies have investigated parent-infant interaction employing the still-face paradigm and found that the primary caregiver(s), often the mother, is an important coregulator of the infant’s physiological and behavioral stress response. However, limited information is available on how the infant’s brain reacts to the maternal cues during real-life interaction.MethodsTherefore, the main aim of the current study was to design a fNIRS paradigm to study live mother-infant interaction and to explore the neural correlates of infant affect regulation during real-life dyadic interaction. To this end, a modified still-face paradigm was designed, which consists of live face-to-face mother-infant, and stranger-infant, interaction episodes, including stressful, “still-face” and non-stressful, “happy-face” interaction blocks, combined with infant fNIRS imaging.ResultsHemodynamic brain responses were collected in n = 10 (6 females, mean age 230.2 ± 17.5 days), typically developing infants using the Hitachi ETG-4000 continuous-wave system (22 channels spanning the frontal cortex; 10 Hz system sampling frequency). Infants with usable data (n = 7) showed negative activations, indicated by a decrease in oxygenated hemoglobin, over the middle frontal gyrus in response to happy-face (reunion) interaction with their mothers compared to a female stranger; suggesting deactivation of brain regions associated with affect regulation. We also explored correlations between infant brain responses to maternal interaction and infant characteristics (temperament) as well as experiential/environmental factors (mothers’ self-reported depression symptoms).ConclusionsAlthough the current results are very preliminary, they overall suggest that live design in infant populations is doable and offers unique opportunities to study the neural mechanisms underlying early caregiver(s)-child interaction in a more naturalistic context. Restrictions, and implications, of the methodology are critically discussed.     

Parenting and mother-infant interactions in the context of maternal postpartum obsessive-compulsive disorder: Effects of obsessional symptoms and mood

BackgroundMaternal mental illness is associated with negative effects on the infant and child. Increased attention has been paid to the effects of specific perinatal disorders on parenting and interactions as an important mechanism of influence. OCD can be a debilitating disorder for the sufferer and those around them. Although OCD is a common perinatal illness, no previous studies have characterized parenting and mother infant interactions in detail for mothers with OCD.Methods37 mothers with postpartum OCD and a 6 month old infant were compared with 37 community control dyads on a variety of measures of psychological distress and parenting. Observed mother-infant interactions were assessed independently.ResultsObsessions and compulsions were reported in both groups, although they did not cause interference in the control group. Mothers with OCD were troubled by their symptoms for a mean of 9.6 hours/day. Mothers with OCD were less confident, reported more marital distress and less social support than healthy peers and were less likely to be breastfeeding. Infant temperament ratings did not differ. Mothers with OCD were rated as less sensitive in interactions than the comparison group, partly attributable to levels of concurrent depression.ConclusionsMaternal postpartum OCD is a disorder that can affect experiences of parenting and mother-infant interactions although this may not be driven by OCD symptoms. Longitudinal studies are required to assess the trajectory and impact of maternal difficulties as the infant develops.     

A categorical approach to infants’ individual differences during the Still-Face paradigm

Cluster analysis was used to create patterns of individual differences reflecting infant behaviors during the initial interaction episode of the Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) paradigm. The clusters were used as the basic unit of analysis for studying infant and maternal behavior and dyadic coordination (i.e., matching and reparation) across FFSF. Seventy-five 4-month-old infants participated with their mothers. Cluster analysis identified three patterns: a Socially Engaged cluster (33%) exhibited high levels of social engagement with their mothers; a Disengaged cluster (60%) showed a tendency to be low in social interaction and a Negatively Engaged cluster (7%) showed high negative emotionality. During the Still-Face episode, the Socially Engaged cluster reacted by reducing focus on their mother and shifting their attention elsewhere, while infants in the Disengaged cluster reduced focus on the environment. Although both the Socially Engaged and Disengaged clusters increased in negative emotionality during the Still-Face, the Socially Engaged group largely recovered during the Reunion, whereas the Disengaged group displayed more negative emotion. The Negatively Engaged cluster demonstrated high levels of negative affect throughout the entire procedure. Mothers of Negatively Engaged infants showed less positive engagement and more social monitoring than mothers in other clusters during all episodes. Dyadic interaction differed between groups, with greater levels of matching and reparations in the engaged group, less in the Disengaged group, and very little coordination in the Negatively Engaged cluster. Findings highlight the role of distinctive patterns of infants’ individual differences in determining early dyadic functioning.     

Cortisol reactivity and negative affect among preterm infants at 12 months during a mother-infant interaction task

The purpose of this study was to investigate correlates of preterm (PT) infant’s cortisol reactivity and the association to infant negative affect, during a mother-infant interaction procedure. Participants included 48 infants born prematurely (gestational age < 37 weeks) and their mothers, assessed when infants were 12 months old corrected for prematurity. The examined variables comprised both neonatal and environmental dimensions including maternal interactive behavior. Infant negative affect and maternal interactive behavior were assessed with a standardized mother-infant interaction task. A baseline infant saliva sample was collected before the interaction began, and a second sample after the interaction episodes ended. Results revealed that decrease of infant’s cortisol concentration was significantly associated with the exposure to more sensitive, and less intrusive maternal behaviors. However, once controlled for neonatal risk, family SES and maternal psychological distress, the associations were rendered non-significant. Although the association between cortisol reactivity and negative affect trended toward significance, maternal intrusiveness was the only significant predictor of observed infant negative affect. Findings suggest the importance of primary relational experiences on PT infants' early regulatory competencies.     

Affective facial expression in sub-clinically depressed and non-depressed mothers during contingent and non-contingent face-to-face interactions with their infants

BackgroundDepression in the postpartum period involves feelings of sadness, anxiety and irritability, and attenuated feelings of pleasure and comfort with the infant. Even mild- to- moderate symptoms of depression seem to have an impact on caregivers affective availability and contingent responsiveness. The aim of the present study was to investigate non-depressed and sub-clinically depressed mothers interest and affective expression during contingent and non-contingent face-to-face interaction with their infant.MethodsThe study utilized a double video (DV) set-up. The mother and the infant were presented with live real-time video sequences, which allowed for mutually responsive interaction between the mother and the infant (Live contingent sequences), or replay sequences where the interaction was set out of phase (Replay non-contingent sequences). The DV set-up consisted of five sequences: Live1-Replay1-Live2-Replay2-Live3. Based on their scores on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), the mothers were divided into a non-depressed and a sub-clinically depressed group (EPDS score ≥ 6).ResultsA three-way split-plot ANOVA showed that the sub-clinically depressed mothers displayed the same amount of positive and negative facial affect independent of the quality of the interaction with the infants. The non-depressed mothers displayed more positive facial affect during the non-contingent than the contingent interaction sequences, while there was no such effect for negative facial affect.ConclusionsThe results indicate that sub-clinically level depressive symptoms influence the mothers’ affective facial expression during early face-to-face interaction with their infants. One of the clinical implications is to consider even sub-clinical depressive symptoms as a risk factor for mother-infant relationship disturbances.     

Taking stress response out of the box: stability, discontinuity, and temperament effects on HPA and SNS across social stressors in mother-infant dyads

This study investigated continuity and stability of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) response measures in mother-infant dyads across 2 different types of social stress sessions. Synchrony of response trajectories across systems (SNS-HPA coordination) and partners (mother-infant attunement) was addressed, as were associations with infant temperament. Primiparous mothers and their 18-month-old infants (n = 86 dyads) completed an attachment stressor--Strange Situation (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978)--at Session 1 and challenge stressors--cleanup task and emotion task battery--at Session 2. Mother and infant saliva samples collected to index pre-stress, stress, and post-stress response during each session were assayed for cortisol (HPA marker) and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA; SNS marker). Multilevel modeling of cortisol/sAA trajectories across sessions revealed rank-order stability in mother/infant stress measures but discontinuity in absolute levels; cortisol trajectories were higher during attachment stress, and sAA trajectories were higher during challenge stress. Varying degrees of mother-infant attunement were found across sessions/systems. Infant surgency predicted higher stress measures, and negative affect and effortful control predicted lower stress measures, though associations depended on session/system. Findings are discussed in terms of advancing a multisystemic, contextual definition of developing stress responsiveness.     

Cognitive engagement in emotional text reading: concurrent recordings of eye movements and head motion

ABSTRACT

The present study examined the effects of emotions on eye movements, head motion, and iPad motion during reading. Thirty-one participants read neutral, emotionally negative texts and emotionally positive texts on a digital tablet and both participants’ eye movements and body movements were recorded using respectively eye-tracking glasses and a motion capture system. The results showed that emotionally positive texts were read faster than neutral texts, and that readers’ movements decreased when reading emotional texts regardless of valence polarity. Recent studies suggested that postural movements may reflect cognitive engagement and especially the engagement in the task to be done. Our findings seem to validate this hypothesis of a bodily engagement in reading emotional contents. The present results suggest that the novel methodology of eye and postural movement recordings is informative in studying the readers’ embodied engagement during reading emotional materials.     

Infant characteristics and parental engagement at the transition to parenthood

Positive engagement activities support children's adaptive development and new parents are encouraged to be highly engaged with infants. Yet, fathers’ engagement is widely understudied and maternal engagement quantity is frequently overlooked. Our study contributes to growing knowledge on associations between infant temperament and parental engagement by testing transactional and moderation models in a recent sample of first-time parents when infants were 3, 6, and 9 months old. Stringent longitudinal, reciprocal structural equation models partially confirmed an engagement “benefit”. Mothers’ engagement marginally contributed to their children's gains in effortful control from 3 to 6 months regardless of child gender. Further, mothers’ engagement reduced infant negative affect from 6 to 9 months regardless of child gender. Mothers’ ratings of infant negative affect were gendered; mothers’ ratings of infant negative affect increases more from 3 to 6 months for boys. Fathers’ engagement was contextually sensitive; child gender moderated the link between negative affect and engagement from 6 to 9 months, such that fathers became more engaged with boys whom they rated higher on negative affect; there was no effect for daughters. Finally, we found that effortful control moderated associations between negative affect and maternal engagement; mothers’ engagement increases from 3 to 6 months were greater for children initially rated lower in effortful control. Implications for future research and parenting education and support services are discussed.     

A comparison of dyadic interactions and coping with still‐face in healthy pre‐term and full‐term infants

Pre‐term birth has a significant impact on infants' social and emotional competence, however, little is known about regulatory processes in pre‐term mother‐infant dyads during normal or stressful interactions. The primary goals of this study were to investigate the differences in infant and caregiver interactive behaviour and dyadic coordination of clinically healthy pre‐term compared to full‐term infant‐mother dyads and to examine pre‐term infants' capacity for coping with stress using the face‐to‐face still‐face paradigm (FFSF). Fifty mother‐infant dyads, including 25 pre‐term infants and 25 full‐term infants were videotaped during the FFSF. All infants were 6–9 months of age (corrected for gestational age in the pre‐term group). Infant and maternal socio‐emotional expressivity and self‐regulatory behaviours were coded and measures of dyadic coordination (Matching, Reparation Rate, and Synchrony) were calculated. There were no significant differences in infant and caregiver socio‐emotional behaviours between the two groups and both groups demonstrated the still‐face (SF) effect and the reunion effect. There was a difference in self‐regulatory behaviour. Pre‐term infants were more likely than full‐term infants to use distancing (e.g., by turning away, twisting, or arching) from their mothers during the FFSF. Additionally, during the Reunion episode of the FFSF pre‐term infants showed more social monitoring compared to full‐term infants. Regardless of the birth status, the dyads showed less coordination and a slower rate of reparation during the Reunion episode than during the Play episode. The higher proportion of distancing in the pre‐term group and the increase in social monitoring suggest that even in normal interactions pre‐term infants may experience a higher level of stress and have less capacity for self‐regulation compared to the full‐terms and that pre‐term infants appear to use a compensatory strategy of increased social monitoring to cope with the stress of renegotiating the interaction during Reunion. The findings suggest that pre‐term infants have different regulatory and interactive capacities than full‐term infants.     

Music therapy enhances preterm infant’s signs of engagement and sustains maternal singing in the NICU

Hospitalized preterm infants are exposed to stressful stimuli and early parental separation, which can undermine their long-term development and mother-infant bonding. Family-centered music therapy can enable positive mother-infant interactions, mediated by maternal infant-directed singing. This study aimed to investigate the effects of music therapy on preterm infant’s signs of engagement, namely Eye Opening (EO) and Smiling (SM), and maternal vocalizations. Participants were 30 mother-preterm infant dyads in a Brazilian Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), divided into a Music Therapy Group (MTG) and a Comparison Group (CG). The MTG participated in 6 sessions of the Music Therapy Intervention for the Mother-Preterm Infant Dyad (MUSIP), with the aim of supporting maternal singing with the infant. Prior to discharge, all mothers were filmed during a Non-singing (NS) and Singing (S) interactional condition; in the S condition, mothers were explicitly asked to address their infants by singing. Results of video and audio analysis showed that infants in the MTG displayed greater Eye Opening (EO) frequency compared to CG, but only when they were in an initial awake state at test, suggesting that music therapy can potentialize infants’ alertness, by increasing their disposition and chances of being engaged in the interaction with the mother. Non-religious mothers appeared to sing significantly more in the MTG than in the CG. These preliminary findings indicate that music therapy in the NICU could promote infant’s signs of engagement during interactions and can sustain maternal singing, especially with non-religious mothers in Brazil.     

Stern on “Self”

ABSTRACT

Self is a notion of common-sense psychology that several schools of psychoanalysis have built into their theories. Stern explores and expands its meaning, tracing its development back to birth and even earlier, and outlining how the psychological development of the preverbal infant contributes to its evolution. In the process, Stern discusses two perspectives on preverbal infant psychology—that of the observational empiricist developmental psychologist, and that of the reconstructing psychoanalytic clinician working from the subjective experience of adult patients, and what each might contribute to the other. His thinking suggests the importance of nonverbal models of infant (and, eventually, adult) subjective experience.