title: The effects of parental behavior on infants' neural processing of emotion expressions.
abstract: Infants become sensitive to emotion expressions early in the 1st year and such sensitivity is likely crucial for social development and adaptation. Social interactions with primary caregivers may play a key role in the development of this complex ability. This study aimed to investigate how variations in parenting behavior affect infants' neural responses to emotional faces. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to emotional faces were recorded from 40 healthy 7-month-old infants (24 males). Parental behavior was assessed and coded using the Emotional Availability Scales during free-play interaction. Sensitive parenting was associated with increased amplitudes to positive facial expressions on the face-sensitive ERP component, the negative central. Findings are discussed in relation to the interactive mechanisms influencing how infants neurally encode positive emotions.
authors: University College London and Developmental Neuroscience Unit, Anna Freud Centre, London.
authors: Samantha
authors: S
authors: Taylor-Colls
authors: University College London and Developmental Neuroscience Unit, Anna Freud Centre, London.
authors: R M
authors: RM
authors: Pasco Fearon
mesh_terms: D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000523:psychology; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D013694:Temperament / Q000502:physiology