Prior reproductive experience modulates neural responses to infant faces across the postpartum period

ABSTRACT

Infant-cue processing facilitates sensitive maternal care, which is necessary in the formation of healthy mother-infant attachment. Mothers may be particularly focused on cue processing early postpartum, contributing to intense preoccupation with their infant’s well-being. Prior reproductive experience, or parity, may also impact the intensity of infant-cue processing and has been found to influence P300 neural responses to infant faces during pregnancy and at 2 months postpartum. However, we do not know whether this parity effect persists. Thus, we examined the P300 to infant faces in 59 mothers at 2 and 7 months postpartum. Our main finding was that primiparous, as compared to multiparous, women showed a significantly higher P300 to infant faces across the postpartum period. Findings further emphasize the importance of studying parity and its impact on the neural processing of infant faces.

KEYWORDS:

• Infant face
• maternal
• parity
• EEG/ERP
• P300

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all of the mothers who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by P01 DA022446 and the Anna Freud Centre (UK). Dr. Potenza also received support from the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addictions Services and the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling. The funding sources had no involvement in any part of the study design, writing of the manuscript, or decision to submit the manuscript.