Baby Crying Induces Different Cortical Activation in Mothers with Secure and Insecure Attachment

SYNOPSIS

Objective. To characterize electroencephalographic activity (EEG) in mothers with secure (SA) and insecure attachment (IA) while viewing a video of a baby crying (CR). Design. EEGs were recorded in the prefrontal and parietal cortices (related to the processing of relevant stimuli) in first-time, IA (n = 8) and SA (n = 8), mothers while watching and listening to CR. Results. During CR, compared to IA, SA showed a lower absolute power (AP) of the alpha2 and beta1 bands in frontal areas, higher AP of the gamma and delta bands in parietal areas, and higher prefronto-parietal correlation in the fast frequencies. Conclusions. These EEG differences could be related to the greater attention and emotional regulation that SA show in the presence of a baby crying.

ADDRESSES AND AFFILIATIONS

Correspondence to: M. Hernández-González, University of Guadalajara, Francisco de Quevedo, 180. Col. Arcos-Vallarta, C.P. 44130, Guadalajara, Jalisco, México. Email: [email protected]. I.K. Sandoval-Carrillo, M.A. Guevara, and R.M. Hidalgo-Aguirre are at the University of Guadalajara.

ARTICLE INFORMATION

Conflict of interest disclosures

No authors report any financial or other conflict of interest related to the present study.

Ethical principles

The authors affirm having followed professional ethical guidelines in preparing this work, including obtaining informed consent, maintaining ethical treatment and respect for the rights of human participants, and ensuring the privacy of participants and their data, that cannot be identified in reported results or from publicly available original or archival data.

Role of the Funders/sponsors

None of the funders or sponsors of this research had any role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; or decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Acknowledgments

We thank Paul Kersey for reviewing language use.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any grants.