Learning in Infants of Chronically Depressed Mothers

婴儿导向（ID）的语言是一个重要的来源，刺激年幼的婴儿，但抑郁的母亲 产生感知上和情感上平坦的ID语音（1，2）。4个月大的抑郁症婴儿 母亲在条件注意范式中表现出联想学习缺陷，其中一小段 他们自己的母亲的ID语音信号的笑脸的外观（3）。6至13个月大的婴儿， 与4个月大的婴儿不同，长期抑郁的母亲在对“高质量”的ID做出反应时， 一个不熟悉的非抑郁母亲的讲话（4）。不过，这些年龄较大的婴儿表现得更好- 比正常学习响应男性ID语音（4）。这项研究有三个具体目标。 具体目标1是调查广泛性学习缺陷的发展，以回应母亲ID 通过对抑郁和非抑郁母亲的婴儿进行联想学习测试， 在4个月和12个月大时，母亲和父亲的ID语音都是“高质量”的。具体目标2是检查 婴儿学习与婴儿自身抑郁和/或非抑郁之间的关系 母亲和父亲的身份认同言语，以及亲子互动和依恋的质量 关系介导的影响，ID的语言对婴儿的学习。具体目标3是评估12个月大的 父母对“高质量”ID的反应都长期抑郁的婴儿 由不熟悉的非抑郁的母亲和父亲产生的语言，以确定这些婴儿是否表现出 最广泛的学习缺陷。这些研究是重要的，因为它们允许严格的分析， 长期抑郁母亲的婴儿学习缺陷的发展，并指出一个合理的 通过这种机制，最初有能力的学习者发展出普遍的学习缺陷。这些实验 承诺为未来旨在预防婴儿学习问题的研究奠定基础。 抑郁的母亲

Infant-directed (ID) speech is an important source of stimulation for young infants, but depressed mothers produce ID speech that is perceptually and affectively flat (1,2). Four-month-old infants of depressed mothers exhibit associative learning deficits in a conditioned-attention paradigm, in which a brief segment of their own mother's ID speech signals the appearance of a smiling face (3). Six- to 13-month-old infants of chroncially depressed mothers, unlike 4-month-olds, further fail to learn in response to "high-quality" ID speech produced by an unfamiliar non-depressed mother (4). However, these older infants exhibit better- than-normal learning in response to male ID speech (4). The proposed research has three Specific Aims. Specific Aim 1 is to investigate the development of the generalized learning deficit in response to maternal ID speech by giving individual infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers associative learning tests with "high-quality" maternal and paternal ID speech at both 4 and 12 months of age. Specific Aim 2 is to examine the relationship between infant learning in response to the infant's own depressed and/or non-depressed mother's and father's ID speech, and whether the quality of parent-infant interaction and attachment relationships mediate the effects of ID speech on infant learning. Specific Aim 3 is to assess 12-month-old infants whose mothers and fathers are both chronically depressed for their responses to "high-quality" ID speech produced by unfamiliar non-depressed mothers and fathers, to determine if these infants exhibit the broadest learning deficits. These studies are important because they permit a rigorous analysis of the development of learning deficits in infants of chronically depressed mothers, and point to a plausible mechanism through which initially able learners develop generalized learning deficits. These experiments promise to lay the foundation for future studies aimed at preventing learning problems in infants of depressed mothers.