The Application of Electroencephalography to Investigate the Neural Bases of Parenting: A Review

SYNOPSIS

Parents play a significant role in their child’s development. Recent neuroimaging research has begun to evaluate the neural circuitry of human parenting to better understand parental responsiveness to infant affective cues. Here, the authors introduce the value of using electroencephalography and event-related potentials as a methodology to probe the neural correlates of parenting. Given the precise temporal resolution of this technique, it affords the opportunity to explore, with millisecond accuracy, the temporal dynamics of stimulus processing. The emerging research was reviewed that has utilized electroencephalography/event-related potentials to explore typical normative processes and mechanisms in parental responsiveness, and consider how these processes might be compromised by psychopathology. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed as the unique contribution this approach can make to the field of parenting research is highlighted.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Anna Freud Centre (UK). ANM was supported by NIMH T32 postdoctoral fellowship (MH018268).