Developmental psychobiology最新文献

For decades, rodent social isolation models have been used to explore how social experience influences brain maturation and adult behavioral outcomes, but studies employing these models have produced seemingly inconsistent experimental results. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of the effects of social isolation during development on adult social behavior, highlighting how differences in experimental paradigms (including the duration and timing of isolation, the sex of subjects, and whether subjects are returned to social housing prior to testing) can help explain disparate experimental results across the four most-studied types of social behaviors in rodent social isolation research (social preference, social investigation, agonistic behavior, and social recognition). Our analysis shows that experimental results are not as inconsistent as they may seem at first glance and that understanding the nuances of rodent social isolation paradigms is necessary for the field to be able to leverage these models to discover the neural mechanisms underlying experience-dependent shaping of social behavior.

This experimental study investigated the cognitive, behavioral, and physiological responses of 11-year-old children when confronted with uncertainty. Using a reward-feedback-based simulation, participants engaged in decision-making tasks involving ambiguous outcomes while their heart rate, decision time, hesitation behavior, and verbalized thought processes were systematically recorded. Findings demonstrated that uncertainty led to increased physiological arousal, longer decision times, greater hesitation, and lower decision accuracy. Regression analysis revealed hesitation as the strongest predictor of physiological arousal (BPM difference), whereas decision time and accuracy were not significant. Notably, participants’ dominant task value orientation—classified according to the situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT)—significantly influenced both physiological and cognitive outcomes. Children with utility-driven motivation exhibited the highest decision accuracy and lowest physiological stress, whereas those motivated by perceived cost showed the opposite pattern. These results provide empirical support for behavioral and physiological responses associated with uncertainty and highlight the importance of developmentally tailored interventions in educational settings. Implications for psychoeducational program design incorporating neurophysiological and technological tools such as EEG, VR, and eye-tracking are discussed.

Stress-induced physiological changes offer insights into autonomic nervous system (ANS) function beyond resting cardiac activity, relevant to both physical and mental illnesses. Limited research exists on heart rate (HR) reactivity in children and adolescents, particularly in the context of internalizing psychopathology. In a study of n = 48 typically developing adolescents (mean age 16.31 years, SD = 0.51), HR and vagal-mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) were assessed by electrocardiography during an orthostatic challenge, which served as a standardized physiological stressor. Regression models examined the association between HR metrics (baseline, reactivity, recovery) and self-reported internalizing psychopathology (depression and anxiety). Higher levels of internalizing psychopathology were negatively associated with vmHRV reactivity and recovery, and these associations were moderated by sex. Levels of anxiety and depression showed a stronger negative association with vmHRV reactivity in boys than girls, and anxiety levels showed a unique association with reduced vmHRV recovery in boys. These findings highlight sex-specific patterns in ANS functioning related to internalizing symptoms and stress-induced physiological responses in youth.

Repeated painful procedures are associated with a multitude of effects on neurodevelopment in preterm infants, and current methods of neonatal pain management are unable to prevent the distress and long-term changes induced by these procedures. Cannabidiol (CBD) may be particularly effective for neonatal pain management because it reduces pain unpleasantness ratings, mitigates biological stress responses, and has minimal side effects in adults. However, there is limited research on the effects of neonatal CBD exposure. The present study investigates the efficacy of CBD treatment in mitigating neonatal vocalization responses, as well as short- and long-term behavioral outcomes following neonatal pain exposure. We show that neonatal pain exposure decreases USV emission and increases adult anxiety-like behavior in male rats compared to neonatal touch exposure. Neonatal CBD treatment also decreases pups’ USV lengths and male pups’ USV counts compared to vehicle treatment but is unable to rescue the neonatal pain-related increased anxiety-like behavior in adulthood. Additionally, neonatal CBD increases baseline corticosterone levels in adult male subjects and decreases adult female body weight compared to vehicle. More research is needed to determine whether CBD may be a safe and effective neonatal pain management medication.

Socioeconomic resources have long been associated with children's language development. Several proximal factors have been suggested as candidate mechanisms underlying socioeconomic disparities in language development, including differences in the home language environment and home noise levels. These experiences may in part shape auditory discrimination skills, a key component of language comprehension. To index early auditory discrimination, researchers measured brain function in relation to the detection of different sounds with an event-related potential (ERP) called the mismatch response (MMR). The current study aimed to examine associations among socioeconomic circumstances, the home language environment, home noise exposure, and the MMR in a socioeconomically, racially, and ethnically diverse longitudinal sample of 6- and 12-month-old infants. Socioeconomic circumstances were measured prenatally via parent report. The home language environment and home noise levels were measured using digital language processing devices when infants were approximately 6 months of age. The MMR was elicited during a passive auditory oddball task at two timepoints—6 and 12 months of age. Results showed that neither SES, the home language environment, nor home noise levels predicted infant MMR at either age. These findings add to a growing body of literature examining the role of distal and proximal factors in shaping infant brain activity related to language development.

If left untreated, peripartum depression (PPD) can significantly disrupt mother–infant interactions and is associated with long-term negative consequences for child development. The aim of this article was to systematically review studies examining the underlying neural and physiological markers associated with socioemotional and cognitive development in infants and children exposed to maternal PPD. A literature search was conducted in PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, and Cochrane databases, covering studies from their inception until July 2024. Six studies were included in this review. Two studies assessed PPD symptoms during pregnancy, two during the postpartum period, and two during both pregnancy and the postpartum period. The findings suggest that the developmental outcomes of the offspring of depressed mothers during the perinatal period may be underpinned by specific correlates of brain activity and psychophysiological functioning—specifically, greater right frontal EEG asymmetry, heightened activation of the amygdala and other paralimbic structures, lower vagal tone, and increased N2 latencies. This review highlights the need for further research in this area.

Glucocorticoids are a commonly proposed pathway through which offspring socioemotional development is shaped by the prenatal environment. However, studies have primarily assessed fetal cortisol exposure indirectly. We examine whether neonatal hair cortisol concentrations, an index of fetal cortisol exposure during the third trimester, are associated with early markers of offspring socioemotional development (negative affectivity and attention to affective faces). Participants included 107 mothers and their 6-month-old infants (59% female). Neonatal hair samples were collected shortly after birth. At 6 months, mothers rated their infants’ negative affectivity with the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ), and infants’ attention to affective faces was assessed with a free-viewing eye-tracking task. Overall attention measures included total looking time and latency to faces (orienting speed); affect-biased attention measures included proportion of total looking time to emotional faces and orienting speed to the emotional faces relative to neutral faces. Infants with higher neonatal hair cortisol concentrations spent more time attending to faces when presented with negative emotions (i.e., during angry and sad trials but not during happy trials). No associations were found with negative affectivity, attention-orienting, or affect-biased attention. We provide novel evidence that endogenous fetal cortisol exposure relates to patterns of infant attention to affective faces, behaviors that have important implications for socioemotional development.