Differential responses to infant faces in relation to maternal substance use: An exploratory study

Helena J V Rutherford; Sarah W Yip; Patrick D Worhunsky; Sohye Kim; Lane Strathearn; Marc N Potenza; Linda C Mayes

doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2019.107805

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Differential responses to infant faces in relation to maternal substance use: An exploratory study

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Differential responses to infant faces in relation to maternal substance use: An exploratory study

Helena J V Rutherford, Sarah W Yip, Patrick D Worhunsky, Sohye Kim, Lane Strathearn, Marc N Potenza and Linda C Mayes

Drug and alcohol dependence, Vol.207, pp.107805-107805

02/01/2020

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2019.107805

PMCID: PMC7060928

PMID: 31874448

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/7060928View

Open Access

Abstract

Maternal substance use and addiction has been associated with negative consequences for parenting and may increase addiction vulnerability in the developing child. Neuroimaging research suggests that substance use may decrease the reward of caring for infants and heighten stress reactivity to affective infant cues. Thirty-two substance-using mothers and twenty-two non-substance-using mothers were presented with emotional face and cry stimuli generated from their own and a demographically matched unknown infant during fMRI scanning. Between-group differences in neural activity during task performance were assessed using whole-brain, mixed-effects models corrected for multiple comparisons (voxel-level p < 0.001, pFWE<0.05). Relative to non-substance-using mothers, substance-using mothers exhibited greater activation when viewing their own infant's face as compared to an unknown infant's face across multiple brain regions, including superior medial frontal, inferior parietal, and middle temporal regions. Substance-using mothers also had a decreased response to sad infant faces in the ventral striatum relative to the non-substance-using mothers. Neural responses to own vs. unknown infant cries did not significantly differ between substance-using and non-substance-using mothers. Findings suggest overlapping cortical and subcortical brain regions implicated in responding to infant faces, with activation differences related to infant familiarity, emotional expression, and maternal substance use. While prior work has focused on attenuated neural responses to infant cues, greater attention is needed toward understanding the increased reactivity to affective infant cues observed in substance-using mothers.

Cues

Mother-Child Relations - psychology

Acoustic Stimulation

Facial Recognition - physiology

Humans

Facial Expression

Infant

Male

Brain - physiology

Case-Control Studies

Mothers - psychology

Young Adult

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Parenting - psychology

Brain Mapping

Substance-Related Disorders - psychology

Adult

Female

Crying - psychology

Photic Stimulation

Details

Title: Subtitle: Differential responses to infant faces in relation to maternal substance use: An exploratory study
Creators: Helena J V Rutherford - Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06520, United States. Electronic address: helena.rutherford@yale.edu
Sarah W Yip - Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06520, United States; Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, United States
Patrick D Worhunsky - Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, United States
Sohye Kim - Departments of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, United States; Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, University of Massachusetts Medical School, United States; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine, United States
Lane Strathearn - Stead Family Department of Pediatrics, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, United States; Center for Disabilities and Development, University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital, Iowa City, IA, 52242, United States
Marc N Potenza - Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06520, United States; Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, United States; Department of Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, United States; The Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, Wethersfield, CT, 06109, United States; The Connecticut Mental Health Center, New Haven, CT, 06519, United States
Linda C Mayes - Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06520, United States
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Drug and alcohol dependence, Vol.207, pp.107805-107805
DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2019.107805
PMID: 31874448
PMCID: PMC7060928
NLM abbreviation: Drug Alcohol Depend
ISSN: 0376-8716
eISSN: 1879-0046
Publisher: Ireland
Grant note: P01 DA022446 / NIDA NIH HHS R03 DA045289 / NIDA NIH HHS UL1 TR001863 / NCATS NIH HHS K01 DA039299 / NIDA NIH HHS R01 DA026437 / NIDA NIH HHS
Language: English
Date published: 02/01/2020
Academic Unit: Psychiatry; Stead Family Department of Pediatrics; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics; Neuroscience and Pharmacology
Record Identifier: 9984070699102771

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