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Haptic processing in newborns of depressed and nondepressed mothers
Author(s) -
Jouen François,
Sann Coralie,
Molina Michèle
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.20596
Subject(s) - depression (economics) , psychology , developmental psychology , audiology , medicine , economics , macroeconomics
Abstract This study was conducted to compare how newborns of depressed mothers and newborns of nondepressed mothers gather tactile information about texture. Spontaneous manual activity on objects with a smooth or rough texture was recorded in 20 newborns born of mothers with a high risk of depression or a low risk of depression. An important result of the present study is that texture‐based modulation of hand‐pressing frequency was observed in both neonates born of depressed mothers and neonates born of nondepressed mothers. Moreover, hand‐pressing frequency did not depend on the pressure exerted on the object, since all neonates displayed comparable pressure on the held object. Lastly, the results revealed that newborns of depressed mothers held the rough object twice as long as newborns of nondepressed mothers. These results are analyzed in reference to deregulated biochemical functions in neonates born of mothers with a high risk of depression. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 54:451–459, 2012.