The electrophysiological indices of infants memory for a social stressor

描述（由申请人提供）：自从事件相关电位（ERPs）被引入发展研究以来，人们对非语言婴儿的感觉和认知神经生理过程有了大量的了解。这种非侵入性测量方法的使用让我们了解了早期的社会情感技能，从婴儿辨别情绪表达的能力到他们对面孔和模仿行为的记忆。尽管人们可以争辩说，看到一张愤怒或恐惧的脸会引起一定程度的压力，但之前这项研究的主要目的并不是评估婴儿对社会压力的反应或记忆。尽管我们对婴儿社会能力和他们对社会压力的反应的理解有了迅速的进步，但这种文献上的差距仍然存在。提出的项目旨在开发一个ERP范式来研究婴儿对社会压力互动的反应和记忆，即面对面静止的脸（FFSF）范式。这一建议将对该领域做出重大贡献，因为它是通过探索婴儿对日常社会压力记忆的神经生理指标来解决文献空白的第一步。最终，这个范例和这个R21产生的数据将被用来提出一个R01。在整合这两种实验方法时需要克服的主要方法学问题之一是，erp研究需要大量的短而离散的试验，以便从EEG信号中的伪影中分离出重要的神经反应。然而，FFSF范式是母亲和婴儿之间持续的互动。这些差异使得将这两种范式结合起来具有挑战性。在最初的范式中，婴儿将被分为实验组或控制典型游戏组。实验组将接触FFSF范式。第二天，婴儿将参与一个ERP任务。我们将检查ERP组成部分，并假设如果实验组的婴儿记住社会压力源，两组之间将存在差异。这个项目的独特性允许对ERP数据提出探索性的问题。具体来说，我们将解决目前尚不清楚的问题，即在ERP波形中看到的互动社会压力源的影响。开发这一测量方法对于理解压力经历是如何在发育早期被记忆的具有重要意义，并将为评估压力源对发育中的社会大脑以及典型和非典型发展的长期影响提供一个范例，这是NIH使命的一个重要目标。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Since the introduction of event related potentials (ERPs) in developmental research, a great deal has been learned about the sensory and cognitive neurophysiologic processes of the non-verbal infant. The use of this non-invasive measure has informed us about early socio- emotional skills from infants' abilities to discriminate emotion expressions to their memory for faces and imitated acts. Although one can argue that seeing an angry or fearful face induces a certain amount of stress, the primary intention of this previous research has not been to evaluate infants' reactions to or memory of social stress. This gap in the literature exists even though there have been rapid advancements in our understanding of infant social capacities and their reactions to social stress. The proposed project aims to develop an ERP paradigm to examine infants' response to and memory of a socially stressful interaction, the Face-to-Face Still Face (FFSF) paradigm. This proposal will make a significant contribution to the field because it serves as a first step in addressing the gap in the literature by exploring the neurophysiologic indices of infants' memory of everyday social stress. Ultimately this paradigm and the data generated by this R21 will be used to propose a R01. One of the primary methodological issues to overcome in integrating these two experimental approaches is that ERPs studies require a large number of short, discrete trials in order to isolate important neural responses from artifacts in the EEG signal. The FFSF paradigm, however, is a live, continuous interaction between the mother and her infant. These differences make bringing both paradigms together challenging. In the initial paradigm, infants will be separated into an experimental or a control typical-play group. The experimental group will be exposed to the FFSF paradigm. The next day infants will participate in an ERP task. We will examine ERP components and we hypothesize that there will be differences between the two groups if infants in the experimental group remember the social stressor. The uniqueness of this project allows for exploratory questions to be asked of the ERP data. Specifically we will address what currently is unclear, the impact of the interactive social stressor as seen in the ERP waveform. Developing this measure will be of significance for understanding how stressful experiences are memorialized early in development and will provide a paradigm for evaluating the long- term impact of stressors on the developing social brain and on typical and atypical development, a significant goal of the NIH mission. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed project is unique in developing a neurophysiologic measure of infant memory of a socially stressful interaction. Understanding infants' memory for social stressors may help us to better understand their role in the development of behavioral and physiological regulatory systems, differences among well and at-risk infants (e.g., infants with white matter disorder), and the consequences of typical and atypical parenting, including the effects of parental affective disorders and infant neglect. Such knowledge will help inform intervention strategies for infants' whose memories have the potential to distort and derail their development.