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

本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的情绪调节。可能由产前经历形成的情绪调节障碍特别值得关注，因为情绪调节对以后的认知能力和学业成功很重要。具体而言，本项目将通过研究多种因素，包括婴儿的情绪，生理和注意力状态，以及母亲的自我报告，加强对社会文化压力对婴儿情绪调节作用的基本理解。研究结果将突出围产期因素，影响发展，并将揭示潜在的模式之间的婴儿测量，可能独特的特点，早期风险的情绪调节不良。该项目将扩展产前压力和婴儿发育的现有理论，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。该项目将确定与注意力相关的大脑发育是否是产前压力暴露对高危婴儿情绪调节影响的基础。首先，为了确定这种大脑发育是否与产前压力暴露有关，母亲们将报告她们在怀孕期间经历的社会文化压力水平。在出生时，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注意力功能的早期神经发育而加强。在经历压力源的过程中--一个母亲看着她的婴儿，同时保持一个静止的、中性的面部表情--婴儿的心率变异性、皮质醇反应和消极的发声将被测量，用于随后的分析。通过使用各种措施，可以推断行为和生理反应系统之间的潜在不同步，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，行为和生物水平的分析，以了解有关儿童的发展和学习的过程。

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.