@PHDTHESIS{ 2017:1569490408,
 	title = {Neural bases of emotional face processing in infancy : a funcional near-infrared spectroscopy study},
 	year = {2017},
 	url = "http://tede2.pucrs.br/tede2/handle/tede/7867",
 	abstract = "The neural bases of facial emotion processing in infancy are largely unknown. The
 environmental factors that may impact facial processing and emotion recognition along the
 developmental course are also not clearly understood. However, early experiences,
 particularly involving consistent exposure to familiar caregiver faces, are believed to
 influence this course. The aim of this study was to investigate the neural correlates of infants?
 emotional face processing using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and examine
 the potential influence of infants? early emotional experiences, indirectly measured by
 investigating maternal anxiety symptoms. Participants were 29 typically developing 5-monthold
 infants and their mothers, recruited from a community sample from the Boston greater
 area, MA, USA. Maternal anxiety was assessed using the trait component of the State-Trait
 Anxiety Inventory. Infants observed static visual images of a female model portraying happy
 and fearful expressions, while hemodynamic brain responses were measured using fNIRS.
 The oxyhemoglobin (oxyHb) and deoxyhemoglobin (deoxyHb) responses over frontal,
 parietal and temporal areas were compared for the emotional expressions in infants of
 mothers reporting low and high levels of anxiety symptoms. Results revealed a significant
 main effect of emotion (p=.022), driven by greater oxyHb concentration responses for happy
 compared to fearful faces. There was also a main effect of region (p=.013) induced by a
 significantly greater oxyHb concentration in temporal compared to frontal cortical regions
 (p=.031). Additionally, a significant three-way interaction between emotion, hemisphere and
 anxiety was observed (p=.037). Planned comparisons revealed that infants of high-anxious
 mothers showed significantly greater left hemispheric activation of oxyHb to happy faces
 when compared with right (p=.040) and left (p=.033) hemispheric activation of oxyHb to
 fearful faces. These findings possibly indicate that 5-month-olds can discriminate happy from
 fearful faces, evinced by the greater activation for the former. The greater activation in
 temporal as compared to frontal areas was discussed in relation to the ontogenesis of face
 processing and emotion recognition neural networks. The enhanced response to happy versus
 fearful faces observed in infants of high-anxious mothers can be related to the presumed
 altered emotional environment experienced by these infants, compared to that of infants of
 low-anxious mothers. Therefore, maternal anxiety levels appeared to moderate infants?
 hemodynamic brain responses to emotional faces.",
 	publisher = {Pontif?cia Universidade Cat?lica do Rio Grande do Sul},
 	scholl = {Programa de P?s-Gradua??o em Medicina e Ci?ncias da Sa?de},
 	note = {Escola de Medicina}
}