Immediate and selective maternal brain responses to own infant faces

Infant faces elicit caregiving in adults. In previous research on brain responses to images of infant faces, the faces were unknown to participants. This study investigated EEG in primiparous mothers of 3- to 6-month-old infants viewing their own infant's face compared to an unfamiliar but appe...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Valenzi, S., Islam, T., Mash, C., Bornstein, M.H., Esposito, Gianluca
Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/84103
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/41645
Description
Summary:Infant faces elicit caregiving in adults. In previous research on brain responses to images of infant faces, the faces were unknown to participants. This study investigated EEG in primiparous mothers of 3- to 6-month-old infants viewing their own infant's face compared to an unfamiliar but appearance-matched infant's face. Spectral power was calculated and compared, and power at three EEG bands (delta, theta, and gamma) was found to differ between faces. Brain responses among primiparous mothers distinguish images of their own versus unfamiliar infants.