Mother-Child Brain Synchrony - The Intergenerational Transmission of Depression

Judith Morgan PhD is Associate Professor of Psychiatry. She observes mother-young child social interactions at play while simultaneously recording the brain cortical rhythms of each.

Behaviors and neural responses of children at high risk for depression (their mothers are depressed) are compared with those of non-depressed mothers.

This research gives rich information/prediction about behaviors, early child brain development-later emotional states, how maternal depression may impact upon the child brain.

Released: 10/4/21

References:

1. Morgan, JK.,  Silk JS., Woods, BK., Forbes, EE., (2019). Differential neural responding to affective stimuli in 6-8 year old children at high familial risk for depression: Associations with behavioral reward seeking , Journal of Affective Disorders 257, 445-453
2. Morgan, JK., Olino, TM, Mc.Makin, DL., Ryan ND., Forbes, EE., (2013)., Neural response to reward as a predictor of increases in depressive symptoms in adolescence, Neurobiology of Disease, 52, 66-74