Longitudinal changes in attention bias to infant crying in primiparous mothers

Daiki Hiraoka; Kai Makita; Nobuko Sakakibara; Shigemi Morioka; Makoto Orisaka; Yoshio Yoshida; Akemi Tomoda

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1192275

Longitudinal changes in attention bias to infant crying in primiparous mothers

Front Behav Neurosci. 2023 Sep 22:17:1192275. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1192275. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Daiki Hiraoka^{1

2}, Kai Makita¹, Nobuko Sakakibara¹, Shigemi Morioka^{3

4}, Makoto Orisaka⁵, Yoshio Yoshida⁵, Akemi Tomoda^{1

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Research Center for Child Mental Development, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan.
² The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan.
³ Department of Pediatrics, Fukui Aiiku Hospital, Fukui, Japan.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, Japanese Red Cross Kyoto Daini Hospital, Kyoto, Japan.
⁵ Faculty of Medical Sciences, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan.
⁶ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychological Medicine, University of Fukui Hospital, Matsuoka-Shimoaizuki, Fukui, Japan.
⁷ Division of Developmental Higher Brain Functions, United Graduate School of Child Development, Osaka University, Kanazawa University, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Chiba University, and University of Fukui, Osaka, Japan.

Abstract

Introduction: Infant stimuli attract caregiver attention and motivate parenting behavior. Studies have confirmed the existence of attentional bias toward infant face stimuli; however, relatively little is known about whether attentional bias exists for infant cry stimuli, which are as important as faces in child-rearing situations. Furthermore, scarce longitudinal evidence exists on how attentional bias toward infant crying changes through the postpartum period.

Methods: In the present study, we conducted an experiment to assess bias toward infant crying at two postpartum time points: at Time 1 (Mean = 75.24 days), 45 first-time mothers participated and at Time 2 (Mean = 274.33 days), 30 mothers participated. At both time points, the mothers participated in a Stroop task with infant crying and white noise as the stimuli. They were instructed to answer the color out loud as quickly and accurately as possible, while ignoring the sound. Four types of audio stimuli were used in this task (the cry of the mother's own infant, the cry of an unfamiliar infant, white noise matched to the cry of the mother's own infant, and white noise matched to the cry of an unfamiliar infant), one of which was presented randomly before each trial. Response time and the correct response rate for each condition were the dependent variables.

Results: For response time, the main effect of familiarity was significant, with longer response times when the participant's infant's cry was presented. In addition, response times were lower at Time 2 than at Time 1 in some conditions in which crying was presented.

Discussion: The results suggest that mothers may be less disturbed by infant crying as they gain more experience. Elucidating the characteristics of postpartum mothers' changes in cognitive performance related to infants' cries would be useful in fundamental and applied research to understand the process of parents' adaptation to parenting.

Keywords: Stroop task; attentional bias; infant crying; maternal cognition; postpartum change.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (20 J00270 and 21 K13548).