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Depressive symptoms in early pregnancy disrupt attentional processing of infant emotion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2009

R. M. Pearson ,
R. M. Cooper ,
I. S. Penton-Voak ,
S. L. Lightman  and
J. Evans
R. M. Pearson*
Affiliation:
Academic Unit of Psychiatry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
R. M. Cooper
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
I. S. Penton-Voak
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
S. L. Lightman
Affiliation:
Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and Endocrinology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
J. Evans
Affiliation:
Academic Unit of Psychiatry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: R. M. Pearson, Academic Unit of Psychiatry, Cotham House, Cotham Hill, Bristol BS6 6JL, UK. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Background

Growing evidence suggests that perinatal depression is associated with disrupted mother–infant interactions and poor infant outcomes. Antenatal depression may play a key role in this cycle by disrupting the development of a maternal response to infant stimuli. The current study therefore investigated the impact of depressive symptoms on the basic cognitive processing of infant stimuli at the beginning of pregnancy.

Method

A total of 101 women were recruited by community midwives and tested at an average gestation of 11 weeks. An established computerized paradigm measured women's ability to disengage attention from infant and adult faces displaying negative positive and neutral emotions. Depressive symptoms were measured using a computerized interview (the Clinical Interview Schedule).

Results

The effect of infant emotion on women's ability to disengage from infant faces was found to be influenced by depressive symptoms. Non-depressed pregnant women took longer to disengage attention from distressed compared with non-distressed infant faces. This bias was not, however, seen in women experiencing depressive symptoms. There was a difference of −53 (s.d.=0.7) ms (95% confidence interval −90 to −14, p=0.007) between those with and without depressive symptoms in this measure of attentional bias towards distressed infant faces.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that depressive symptoms are already associated with differential attentional processing of infant emotion at the very beginning of childbearing. The findings have potential implications for our understanding of the impact of depressive symptoms during pregnancy on the developing mother–infant relationship.

Keywords

Attention biasdepressioninfant stimulipregnancy
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , April 2010 , pp. 621 - 631
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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