The Effects of Parental Behavior on Infants' Neural Processing of Emotion Expressions

• Autores: Samantha Taylor-Colls, R. M. Pasco Fearon
• Localización: Child development, ISSN 0009-3920, Vol. 86, Nº. 3, 2015, págs. 877-888
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • 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.