Study on How Infants of Mothers With Depression Respond to Emotional Faces Using Eye Tracking and Interaction Tasks

What this Trial Is About

This research aims to understand how babies of mothers with postpartum major depression develop attentional biases toward emotional facial expressions. The study focuses on how infant attention and arousal may contribute to this risk and explores these processes in infants from both high-risk and low-risk groups, based on their mothers depression history. The goal is to learn more about early emotional development in these infants and how maternal depression may influence it. Infants will participate in two main tasks. The first is a computer-based task where infants view faces showing different emotions angry, happy, sad, neutral while an eye tracker monitors their gaze. The second is a standardized mother-infant interaction task consisting of three three-minute stages normal play without toys, a sad or depressed interaction with minimal movement or contact, and a return to normal play. These tasks will help assess infant gaze and physiological responses. Participants will be assessed at the start and then at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months follow-up. During these visits, researchers will measure infant eye gaze during both tasks, heart rate, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia to monitor infant arousal. They will also evaluate infant social-emotional problems over time. The study involves healthy infants born full-term and normal weight, with ongoing monitoring through the first year of life.

Development of Attentional Biases for Affective Cues in Infants of Mothers With Depression