Effects of executive function difficulty on brain responses to infant crying

757 

Abstract Submission 

Daiki Hiraoka^1,2, Shannon Powers¹, Genevieve Patterson¹, Jenna Chin¹, Yun Xie¹, Tom Yeh³, Pilyoung Kim¹

¹University of Denver, Denver, CO, ²University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan, ³University of Colorado - Boulder, Boulder, CO

Daiki Hiraoka  
University of Denver|University of Fukui
Denver, CO|Fukui, Japan

Shannon Powers  
University of Denver
Denver, CO

Genevieve Patterson, M.A.  
University of Denver
Denver, CO

Jenna Chin  
University of Denver
Denver, CO

Yun Xie  
University of Denver
Denver, CO

Tom Yeh, PhD  
University of Colorado - Boulder
Boulder, CO

Pilyoung Kim, PhD  
University of Denver
Denver, CO

Infant crying is a primal signal that motivates caregiving behavior while often triggering negative emotions, necessitating emotional regulation. Executive function comprises top-down cognitive processes, including the regulation of behaviors and emotions (Diamond, 2013; Gyurak et al., 2012). Parents with higher executive function exhibit greater sensitivity with their infants (Harris et al., 2021). Additionally, executive function-mediated difficulties in emotional regulation have been linked to increased child abuse risk (Crouch et al., 2018), suggesting that executive function could underpin the cognitive basis for appropriate caregiving by regulating neural processing of infant signal. This study seeks to investigate the association between the multifaceted aspects of executive function and brain activity in response to infant crying.

Participants in this study were 87 postpartum birthing parents who underwent the fMRI task. These individuals also completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function - Adult Version (BRIEF-A) during their late pregnancy. The average age of participants at the time of the MRI was 28.89 years (SD = 5.62), and the scans were conducted on average 1.35 months postpartum (SD = 0.96).
In the Infant Cry task, participants heard four sound types: their own infant's cry, another infant's cry, white noise matched to their infant's cry, and white noise matched to the other infant's cry. Each was played five times for 20 seconds, totaling 20 sounds with 8-12 second intervals.
The BRIEF-A assesses difficulties with daily executive functioning (Roth et al., 2005). The BRIEF-A comprises 75 items across 9 clinical scales. In this research, the scales were aggregated into four higher-order factors: the Behavioral Regulation, the Emotional Regulation, the External Metacognition, and the Internal Metacognition.
fMRI data were preprocessed and analyzed utilizing the fMRI prep and AFNI software. Covariates included age, months postpartum, and the average income-to-needs ratio during pregnancy. Corrections for multiple comparisons were applied across the whole brain, with a cluster extent threshold of k ≥ 16 at a height threshold of p < .001, as determined by 3dClustSim.

Across all subscales, clusters including the right superior temporal gyrus (R STG) were significant in the interactions with sound (cry vs. white noise) condition (Figure 1 and 2A), indicating that birthing parents with greater executive dysfunction exhibited increased brain activity during the crying condition. For all subscales except the Behavioral Regulation, clusters involving the right middle temporal gyrus (R MTG) showed a similar pattern (Figure 1 and 2B). Conversely, the Behavioral Regulation demonstrated an inverse interaction effect in clusters including the right middle frontal gyrus (R MFG) during the crying condition (Figure 1 and 2C).

STG and MTG are crucial for processing infant cries (Witteman et al., 2019), and central to mentalizing and intentional empathy (de Greck et al., 2012; Feldman, 2015). Higher behavioral inhibition was associated with increased activity in the STG when responding to infant cries (Montoya et al., 2012). Our finding suggests that parents with executive dysfunctions might need greater activation in these areas to compensate for impaired mentalizing for the crying infant.
In contrast, the MFG, which is involved in emotional regulation (Feldman, 2015), showed reduced activation in parents with more significant behavioral regulation difficulties. This reduction might reflect an impaired capacity to control the distress caused by infant cries. The MFG response to crying is influenced by perceived stress and lower income (Kim et al., 2016), which points to the potential for future research to explore the moderating or mediating effects of executive function in this relationship between socioeconomic disadvantages and the MFG's response to infant crying.

Emotional Perception ¹

Social Cognition

Executive Function, Cognitive Control and Decision Making ²

Perception: Auditory/ Vestibular

Cognition

Development

Emotions

FUNCTIONAL MRI

Meta-Cognition

Social Interactions