Reduced Face Preference in Infancy: A Developmental Precursor to Callous-Unemotional Traits?
Reduced Face Preference in Infancy: A Developmental Precursor to Callous-Unemotional Traits?
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DOI：
10.1016/j.biopsych.2014.09.022
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发表时间：
2015-07-15
影响因子：
10.6
通讯作者：
Hill J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bedford R;Pickles A;Sharp H;Wright N;Hill J
具有冷酷无情（CU）特征的儿童被认为是成人精神病的前兆，其特征是情绪识别受损、对他人痛苦的反应减弱以及缺乏内疚或同理心。人们认为，对面部，特别是对眼睛区域的关注减少是造成这些困难的原因，尽管这从未从婴儿期起进行过纵向测试。对面孔的关注发生在二元照顾者互动的背景下，并且包括养育特征在内的早期环境与 CU 特征相关。本研究测试了婴儿对直接凝视脸部的偏好以及母亲的敏感性水平是否可以预测以后的 CU 特征。数据分析来自 213 名参与者的分层随机样本，这些参与者是从 1233 名首次当妈妈的人口样本中抽取的。将婴儿 5 周时的优先面部追踪和 29 周时的母亲敏感性输入加权线性回归，作为 2.5 岁时 CU 特征的预测因子。控制一系列混杂因素（例如，剥夺），较低的优先面部跟踪预测较高的 CU 特征 (p = .001)。较高的母亲敏感性预示着女孩的 CU 特征较低 (p = .009)，但男孩则不然。没有发现面部追踪和母亲敏感性之间存在显着的交互作用。这是第一项研究表明，婴儿期对社会特征的关注以及早期敏感的养育方式可以预测 CU 特征的后续发展。识别这种早期的非典型性提供了对有发展 CU 特征风险的儿童进行父母介导的干预的可能性。
Children with callous-unemotional (CU) traits, a proposed precursor to adult psychopathy, are characterized by impaired emotion recognition, reduced responsiveness to others’ distress, and a lack of guilt or empathy. Reduced attention to faces, and more specifically to the eye region, has been proposed to underlie these difficulties, although this has never been tested longitudinally from infancy. Attention to faces occurs within the context of dyadic caregiver interactions, and early environment including parenting characteristics has been associated with CU traits. The present study tested whether infants’ preferential tracking of a face with direct gaze and levels of maternal sensitivity predict later CU traits. Data were analyzed from a stratified random sample of 213 participants drawn from a population-based sample of 1233 first-time mothers. Infants’ preferential face tracking at 5 weeks and maternal sensitivity at 29 weeks were entered into a weighted linear regression as predictors of CU traits at 2.5 years. Controlling for a range of confounders (e.g., deprivation), lower preferential face tracking predicted higher CU traits (p = .001). Higher maternal sensitivity predicted lower CU traits in girls (p = .009), but not boys. No significant interaction between face tracking and maternal sensitivity was found. This is the first study to show that attention to social features during infancy as well as early sensitive parenting predict the subsequent development of CU traits. Identifying such early atypicalities offers the potential for developing parent-mediated interventions in children at risk for developing CU traits.