Electrophysiological responses to affective stimuli in neglectful mothers.
Results illustrating an atypical neural processing in the early and late differentiation of infant faces have been obtained with neglectful mothers. The present study explores whether a different pattern of response is observed when using non-infant affective pictures. We examined the event-related evoked potentials and induced delta, theta and alpha activity in 14 neglectful mothers and 14 control mothers elicited while categorizing positive, negative and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System. Self-reports of anhedonia and empathy were also recorded. Early posterior negativity, P200 and late positive potential components were modulated by the emotional content of pictures in both groups. However, the LPP waveform had a more delayed and more attenuated maximum in neglectful mothers than in control mothers. Oscillatory responses indicated lower power increases for neglectful mothers than for control mothers in delta (1-4 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz) and lower alpha (8-10 Hz) bands at frontal sites, and a more consistent increase for neglectful mothers in theta and lower alpha bands at occipital sites, especially for negative pictures. These findings help us to better understand the limits of emotional insensitivity in neglectful mothers.
Faculty of Psychology, University of La Laguna, La Laguna, Canary Islands, Spain.
Inmaculada
I
León
Faculty of Psychology, University of La Laguna, La Laguna, Canary Islands, Spain.
María José
MJ
Rodrigo
Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL), Donostia-San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain.
Ileana
I
Quiñones
Faculty of Psychology, University of La Laguna, La Laguna, Canary Islands, Spain.
Juan Andrés
JA
Hernández
Cognitive Neuroscience Department, Cuban Neuroscience Center, Havana, Cuba.
Agustín
A
Lage
Faculty of Psychology, University of La Laguna, La Laguna, Canary Islands, Spain.
Iván
I
Padrón
Cognitive Neuroscience Department, Cuban Neuroscience Center, Havana, Cuba.
María Antonieta
MA
Bobes
D000328:Adult; D058256:Brain Waves; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004644:Emotions; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers