RUI: Fetal programming of early brain development and emotional regulation in infants: The role of sociocultural stressors

该项目将调查产前暴露于社会文化压力源是否以及在多大程度上影响婴儿早期大脑发育和相关情绪调节。由于情绪调节对以后的认知能力和学业成功非常重要，因此产前经历可能会对情绪调节造成损害，这一点值得特别关注。具体而言，本项目将通过对婴儿情绪、生理、注意状态以及母亲自我报告等多因素的研究，加深对社会文化压力源对婴儿情绪调节作用的基本认识。研究结果将强调影响发育的围产期因素，并将揭示婴儿测量中的潜在模式，这些模式可能是早期情绪调节不良风险的独特特征。该项目将扩展目前产前压力和婴儿发育的理论，并为学生提供多种研究机会，扩大不同群体对科学的参与。此外，这项工作将整合教学和研究，这是一种高影响力的实践，可以改善学习成果，提高学生的毕业率。该项目将确定注意力相关的大脑发育是否会影响产前压力暴露对高危婴儿情绪调节的影响。首先，为了确定这种大脑发育是否与产前压力暴露有关，母亲们将报告怀孕期间经历的社会文化压力水平。出生时，将评估婴儿大脑的电生理活动，以评估大脑发育和注意力功能。在6个月大时，将使用社会压力源来确定产前压力暴露与婴儿情绪失调之间的关系是否通过早期注意力功能的神经发育而得到加强。在经历压力源时——母亲在保持静止、中立的面部表情的同时看着她的婴儿——婴儿的心率变异性、皮质醇反应和消极的发声将被测量，以供后续分析。通过使用各种测量方法，可以推断出行为和生理反应系统之间潜在的不同步，这本身可能表明幼儿的情绪失调。这项工作将利用多学科、多方法的方法，整合社会、行为和生物学层面的分析来理解与儿童发展和学习相关的过程。

This project will investigate whether and to what extent prenatal exposure to sociocultural stressors influences early brain development and associated emotional regulation in infants. Impairments in emotional regulation that may be shaped by prenatal experiences are of particular concern because emotional regulation is important for cognitive ability and academic success later in life. Specifically, this project will enhance basic understanding of the role of sociocultural stressors on infant emotional regulation by studying multiple factors, including infants' emotional, physiological, and attentional states, as well as mothers' self-reports. Findings will highlight perinatal factors that affect development and will uncover potential patterns among infant measurements that may uniquely characterize early risk for poor emotional regulation. This project will extend current theories of prenatal stress and infant development and provide multiple research opportunities for students, broadening participation of diverse groups in science. Moreover, this work will integrate teaching and research, a high-impact practice shown to improve learning outcomes and increase graduation rates in students. The project will ascertain if attention-related brain development underlies the effects of prenatal stress exposure on emotional regulation in at-risk infants. First, to determine if such brain development is related to prenatal stress exposure, mothers will report on levels of sociocultural stress experienced during their pregnancy. At birth, electrophysiological activity in the infants' brains will be assessed to evaluate brain development and attention functioning. At 6 months of age, a social stressor will be used to determine if the relationship between prenatal stress exposure and infant emotional dysregulation is strengthened by early neurodevelopment of attention functioning. While experiencing the stressor--an interaction in which a mother looks at her infant while maintaining a nonmoving, neutral facial expression--infants' heart rate variability, cortisol responses, and negative vocalizations will be measured for subsequent analysis. By using a variety of measures, inferences can be made about the potential dyssynchrony between behavioral and physiological response systems, which may itself indicate emotional dysregulation in young children. This work will utilize a multidisciplinary, multi-method approach that integrates social, behavioral, and biological levels of analysis to understand processes related to development and learning in children.