Greater relative right (versus left) frontal cortical activation to emotional faces as measured with alpha power in the electroencephalogram (EEG), has been considered a promising neural marker of increased vulnerability to psychopathology and emotional disorders. We set out to explore multichannel fNIRS as a tool to investigate infants’ frontal asymmetry responses (hypothesizing greater right versus left frontal cortex activation) to emotional faces as influenced by maternal anxiety and depression symptoms during the postnatal period. We also explored activation differences in fronto-temporal regions associated with facial emotion processing. Ninety-one typically developing 5- and 7-month-old infants were shown photographs of women portraying happy, fearful and angry expressions. Hemodynamic brain responses were analyzed over two frontopolar and seven bilateral cortical regions subdivided into frontal, temporal and parietal areas, defined by age-appropriate MRI templates. Infants of mothers reporting higher negative affect had greater oxyhemoglobin (oxyHb) activation across all emotions over the left inferior frontal gyrus, a region implicated in emotional communication. Follow-up analyses indicated that associations were driven by maternal depression, but not anxiety symptoms. Overall, we found no support for greater right versus left frontal cortex activation in association with maternal negative affect. Findings point to the potential utility of fNIRS as a method for identifying altered neural substrates associated with exposure to maternal depression in infancy.

通过脑电图 (EEG) 中的 α 功率测量，右侧（相对于左侧）额叶皮层对情绪面孔的激活程度较高，被认为是一种有希望的神经标志物，表明对精神病理学和情绪障碍的脆弱性增加。我们着手探索多通道 fNIRS 作为一种工具，以研究婴儿对情绪面孔的额叶不对称反应（假设右额叶皮层比左额叶皮层激活更大），这些反应受到产后母亲焦虑和抑郁症状的影响。我们还探讨了与面部情绪处理相关的额颞叶区域的激活差异。向 91 名 5 至 7 个月大的正常发育婴儿展示了描绘快乐、恐惧和愤怒表情的女性照片。对两个额极和七个双侧皮质区域的血流动力学脑反应进行了分析，这些区域细分为额叶、颞叶和顶叶区域，由适合年龄的 MRI 模板定义。报告较高负面情绪的母亲的婴儿在左额下回（与情绪交流有关的区域）的所有情绪中都有较高的氧合血红蛋白（oxyHb）激活。后续分析表明，这种关联是由母亲抑郁症驱动的，而不是由焦虑症状驱动的。总体而言，我们没有发现右侧额叶皮层激活程度高于左侧额叶皮层激活与母亲负面情绪相关的证据。研究结果表明，fNIRS 作为识别与婴儿期母亲抑郁症相关的神经基质改变的方法具有潜在效用。