Emerging evidence indicates that mothers and non-mothers show different neurocognitive responses to infant stimuli. This study investigated mothers’ psychophysiological, cognitive and neuronal responses to emotional infant stimuli. A total of 35 mothers with 4-month-old infants and 18 control women without young children underwent computerized tests assessing neurocognitive processing of infant stimuli. Their eye gazes and eye fixations, galvanic skin responses (GSRs) and facial expressions towards infant emotional stimuli were recorded during the tasks. Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during which they viewed pictures of an unknown infant and, for mothers, their own infants. Mothers gazed more and had increased GSR towards infant stimuli and displayed more positive facial expressions to infant laughter, and self-reported more positive ratings of infant vocalizations than control women. At a neural level, mothers showed greater neural response in insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and occipital brain regions within a predefined ‘maternal neural network’ while watching images of their own vs unknown infants. This specific neural response to own infants correlated with less negative ratings of own vs unknown infants’ signals of distress. Differences between mothers and control women without young children could be interpreted as neurocognitive adaptation to motherhood in the mothers.

中文翻译：

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母亲和非母亲婴儿刺激的神经认知处理：心理生理学、认知和神经影像学证据


新的证据表明，母亲和非母亲对婴儿刺激表现出不同的神经认知反应。这项研究调查了母亲对婴儿情绪刺激的心理生理、认知和神经反应。共有 35 名有 4 个月大婴儿的母亲和 18 名没有幼儿的对照妇女接受了计算机测试，评估婴儿刺激的神经认知处理。在任务过程中，记录了他们的目光和注视、皮肤电反应（GSR）和对婴儿情绪刺激的面部表情。参与者接受了功能性磁共振成像，在此期间他们观看了一个未知婴儿的照片，对于母亲来说，还观看了自己婴儿的照片。与对照组女性相比，母亲们注视的目光更多，对婴儿刺激的 GSR 增加，对婴儿笑声表现出更积极的面部表情，并且自我报告对婴儿发声的评价更积极。在神经水平上，母亲在观看自己婴儿的图像与未知婴儿的图像时，在预先定义的“母体神经网络”内的岛叶、背外侧前额皮质和枕叶区域表现出更大的神经反应。这种对自己婴儿的特定神经反应与自己与未知婴儿的痛苦信号的负面评价较低相关。母亲和没有小孩的对照女性之间的差异可以解释为母亲对母性的神经认知适应。