Happy faces are habituated more slowly by infants of depressed mothers.
Three-month-old infants of depressed (n=16) and non-depressed mothers (n=16) were habituated to video clips of a female model reciting phrases while posing happy or sad facial/vocal expressions and dishabituated to the alternate expressions. Overall, infants of depressed mothers took longer to habituate the video clips compared to infants of non-depressed mothers, and those assigned to habituate the sad video clips displayed a novelty response or dishabituated to the happy expressions. These findings suggest that 3-month-old infants of depressed mothers discriminate sad from happy expressions, however, they do not appear to perceive sad expressions as novel.
Hernandez-Reif
Maria
M
Touch Research Institutes, Department of Pediatrics, University of Miami School of Medicine, PO Box 016820 (D-820), Miami, FL 33101, USA. mhernan4@med.miami.edu
Field
Tiffany
T
Diego
Miguel
M
Vera
Yanexy
Y
Pickens
Jeff
J
D000328:Adult; D002657:Child Development; D003863:Depression / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology*; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D005149:Facial Expression; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D018579:Patient Selection; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales