Maternal anxiety shapes prediction error responses in the infant brain.

ABSTRACT:

Significance

Postnatal maternal anxiety affects a substantial number of new mothers and is linked to long-term risk for anxiety in their offspring. Yet, the neural mechanisms through which postnatal maternal anxiety influences early cognitive development remain unclear. We investigated whether postnatal maternal anxiety shapes how infant brains respond to unexpected events-prediction errors-which are central to learning in uncertain environments.

Aim

We examined prediction error processing in 6- to 8-month-old infants using high-density diffuse optical tomography and eye-tracking. We hypothesized that neural responses in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) would vary with maternal anxiety levels.

Approach

Infants viewed audiovisual events where expected outcomes were

SUBMITTER: Billing ADN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12440255 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature