# Development of Attentional Biases for Affective Cues in Infants of Mothers with Depression

> **NIH NIH R01** · STATE UNIVERSITY OF NY,BINGHAMTON · 2024 · $681,211

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The link between depression in mothers and their children is well established, and there is growing evidence that
children’s biased attention to facial displays of emotion – specifically, attentional avoidance of sad faces – may
represent a key mechanism of risk that develops early in life. Despite the strengths of previous research,
important questions remain. First, studies that have examined attentional biases in infants of mothers with
depression have all been cross-sectional. Second, although researchers have proposed a key role for infant
arousal in the development of these attentional biases (i.e., that attentional avoidance of sad faces serves to
regulate infants’ arousal), this has not been explicitly tested. Third, published studies focus on the impact of
mothers’ depression on infant outcomes. However, there are likely transactional influences between mothers
and their infants. Fourth, depression is a heterogeneous and highly comorbid disorder, leaving unclear whether
there are specific aspects of mothers’ depression presentation that are most strongly associated with the
development of infants’ attentional biases. This study was designed to address these key questions and provide
a more fine-grained understanding of a specific, early emerging mechanism of risk. The study will include a
sample of 6–12-month-old infants of mothers with a history of MDD since the baby’s birth (n=150) or no lifetime
history of MDD (n=75) with assessments every 3 months for 12 months (5 assessments total). Aim 1 is to
prospectively examine the influence of depression in mothers on the development of infants’ attentional biases
for facial displays of emotion using a combination of mother-infant interaction and computer-based tasks. This
will allow us to determine whether depression in mothers predicts infants’ attentional avoidance of sad faces
over their first two years of life. In addition to examining the influence of mothers’ depression broadly, we will
also examine aspects of the depression presentation (facial affect and behavior) that may specifically predict the
development of infants’ attention biases. Aim 2 is to examine infants’ arousal as a mechanism underlying their
attentional avoidance of sad faces. To do this, we will measure dynamic changes in infants’ physiological activity
time-locked to shifts in infants’ attention toward versus away from their mother during standardized mother-infant
interaction tasks. Finally, although we are primarily focused on the impact of mothers on infants, we recognize
that effects are almost certainly transactional, with infants’ attentional avoidance further increasing mothers’
depression. Aim 3 is to examine these transactional relations both within each assessment by focusing on
changes in mothers’ facial affect during each interaction task and between assessments focusing on prospective
changes in mothers’ depressive symptoms. This research will lead to a more detailed understanding...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10980620
- **Project number:** 1R01MH132667-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** STATE UNIVERSITY OF NY,BINGHAMTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Brandon E Gibb
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $681,211
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-08-15 → 2029-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10980620

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10980620, Development of Attentional Biases for Affective Cues in Infants of Mothers with Depression (1R01MH132667-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-12 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10980620. Licensed CC0.

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