Brain—Behavior Correlations: Relationships Between Mother—Stranger FaceProcessing and Infants' Behavioral Responses to a Separation From MotherBrain—Behavior Correlations: Relationships Between Mother—Stranger FaceProcessing and Infants' Behavioral Responses to a Separation From Mother

摘要

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 6-month-olds (N = 30) as they looked at pictures oftheir mother's face and a stranger's face. Negative component (Nc) and P400 component responses fromthe ERP portion of the study were correlated with behavioral responses of the infants during a separationfrom their mothers. We measured the mother-directed infant behaviors of distress and visual search formother during separation in order to determine if they were predictive of infants' brain responses topictures of the mother's face versus a stranger's face. These behavioral measures are important becausethey likely reflect the functioning of the emerging mother—child relationship and inform debates aboutinteractions between social experience and face processing. Infant distress and visual search for motherduring separation were predictive of face processing ERPs, and this relationship differed across motherand stranger face presentations. In particular, distress was associated with larger amplitude P400 and Ncresponses to the mother's face, and visual search for mother was associated with longer P400 and Nclatencies to the stranger's face. Implications for the developing mother—child relationship and faceprocessing system are discussed.