Associations between stress exposure and new mothers’ brain responses to infant cry sounds
Pilyoung Kim,
Rebekah Tribble,
Aviva K. Olsavsky,
Alexander J. Dufford,
Andrew Erhart,
Melissa Hansen,
Leah Grande,
Daniel M. Gonzalez
Affiliations
Pilyoung Kim
Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, 2155 South Race Street, Denver, CO 80208-3500, United States; Corresponding author.
Rebekah Tribble
Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, 2155 South Race Street, Denver, CO 80208-3500, United States
Aviva K. Olsavsky
Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, 2155 South Race Street, Denver, CO 80208-3500, United States; University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine/Children's Hospital Colorado, 13123 E. 16th Avenue, CO 80045, United States
Alexander J. Dufford
Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, 2155 South Race Street, Denver, CO 80208-3500, United States
Andrew Erhart
Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, 2155 South Race Street, Denver, CO 80208-3500, United States
Melissa Hansen
Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, 2155 South Race Street, Denver, CO 80208-3500, United States
Leah Grande
Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, 2155 South Race Street, Denver, CO 80208-3500, United States
Daniel M. Gonzalez
Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, 2155 South Race Street, Denver, CO 80208-3500, United States; Harvard Medical School, Boston, 25 Shattuck St, Boston, MA 02115, United States
Exposure to severe stress has been linked to negative postpartum outcomes among new mothers including mood disorders and harsh parenting. Non-human animal studies show that stress exposure disrupts the normative adaptation of the maternal brain, thus identifying a neurobiological mechanism by which stress can lead to negative maternal outcomes. However, little is known about the impact of stress exposure on the maternal brain response to infant cues in human mothers. We examined the association of stress exposure with brain response to infant cries and maternal behaviors, in a socioeconomically diverse (low- and middle-income) sample of first-time mothers (N=53). Exposure to stress across socioeconomic, environmental, and psychosocial domains was associated with reduced brain response to infant cry sounds in several regions, including the right insula/inferior frontal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus. Reduced activation in these regions was further associated with lower maternal sensitivity observed during a mother–infant interaction. The findings demonstrate that higher levels of stress exposure may be associated with reduced brain response to an infant's cry in regions that are important for emotional and social information processing, and that reduced brain responses may further be associated with increased difficulties in developing positive mother–infant relationships.
