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应激源是否以及在多大程度上影响婴儿的早期大脑发育和相关的情绪调节。情绪调节方面的障碍可能是由出生前的经历形成的，这一点特别值得关注，因为情绪调节对以后的认知能力和学习成功非常重要。具体地说，该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，加强对社会文化应激源在婴儿情绪调节中的作用的基本理解。研究结果将突出影响发育的围产期因素，并将揭示婴儿测量中的潜在模式，这些模式可能独一无二地表征情绪调节不良的早期风险。该项目将扩展目前关于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，这项工作将把教学和研究结合起来，这是一种高影响力的做法，被证明可以改善学习结果，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支持产前应激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，母亲们将报告她们在怀孕期间经历的社会文化压力水平。在婴儿出生时，将评估婴儿大脑中的电生理活动，以评估大脑发育和注意力功能。在6个月大时，将使用一种社会应激源来确定产前应激暴露与婴儿情绪失调之间的关系是否因注意力功能的早期神经发育而得到加强。在经历应激源时--母亲看着婴儿，同时保持不动的中性面部表情--婴儿的心率变异性、皮质醇反应和负面发声将被测量，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、行为和生物层面的分析，以了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.