Responsiveness to Infant Cues in Postpartum Depressed and Non-Depressed Mothers: Functional Neural Correlates and Their Relation to Behaviour
Year: 2017
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Postpartum depression (PPD) is the most common maternal birth complication, affecting approximately 5-20% of women. PPD disrupts the normal repertoire of parenting abilities and is thought to have long-term consequences for the developing infant, even after the mothers’ depression remits. Despite its prevalence and potentially enduring effects, we understand very little about the neural correlates of PPD. Recent evidence suggests that postpartum depression (PPD) is associated with reduced amygdala (AMY) response to negative stimuli. However, given the anhedonic features of PPD, it is also important to consider the brain response of depressed mothers specifically to positive infant stimuli and to other positively valenced stimuli. In the current work, mothers with clinically determined PPD (n=31) and without PPD (n=23) viewed smiling pictures of infants (both their own and other), and positive non-infant stimuli during an fMRI. Four studies were completed which examined: 1) multidimensional measures such as current parenting stress, early experiences (e.g., being parented themselves as well as experiences of trauma), current mood and anxiety levels, and relationship satisfaction to better characterize our sample of mothers with and without PPD, 2) PPD and Non-PPD mothers’ response to infants and other positive non-infant stimuli, using AMY region-of-interest as well as amygdala connectivity analyses, 3) subregion-level differences in AMY response and connectivity during the viewing of infant and non-infant stimuli 4) whether and/or how behavioural measures of maternal sensitivity and responsiveness (quality of mother-infant interaction) relate to brain response in the AMY as a whole as well as at the subregion level. Knowing how a depressed mother’s brain responds to her own and other infants is critical as many of the symptoms of PPD focus on the mother-infant dyad and involve a subjective evaluation of one’s parenting abilities. This work adds to the existing literature that examines the brain response of mothers with PPD to various stimuli. Furthermore, it has the long-term potential to inform treatment and intervention programs designed for PPD.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Kathleen E. Wonch
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2767525814