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Exploring Associations Between Infant Attachment, Maternal Sensitivity, and Attention to Maternal Emotion Expressions
Mikko J Peltola1, Szilvia Biro2, Rens Huffmeijer2
1Human Information Processing Laboratory, Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.
Developmental Science
|July 31, 2025
Summary
Infant attachment security influences how babies process their mother's emotions. Securely attached infants show stronger brain responses to happy faces, suggesting a positive connection to caregiver interactions.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Infant-caregiver attachment patterns correlate with processing social and emotional cues.
- Previous research links attachment to processing facial expressions, but less is known about responses to actual attachment figures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between infant attachment security at 12 months and neural/attentional responses to maternal facial expressions at 7 months.
- To examine event-related potentials (ERP) and attention dwell times in response to mothers' angry and happy faces.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study involving 88 infants at 7 months and 69 at 12 months.
- Measured ERPs and attention dwell times to maternal and stranger facial expressions (angry/happy) at 7 months.
- Assessed maternal sensitivity and infant attachment security (Strange Situation) at 12 months.
Main Results:
- Securely attached infants showed a larger Nc component (attention allocation) to maternal happy versus angry faces.
- Insecurely attached infants did not exhibit a difference in Nc amplitudes to maternal facial expressions.
- Maternal sensitivity was assessed, but the primary focus was on the association between attachment security and facial expression processing.
Conclusions:
- Infant attachment security is linked to differential neural processing of maternal emotional expressions.
- Secure attachment may involve heightened approach motivation towards positive maternal cues, possibly due to rewarding interactions.
- Findings highlight the role of early attachment in shaping socio-emotional processing.
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