# The Influence of Caregiver Stress on Neurobiological Mechanisms of Caregiving Reward and Responsivity

> **NIH NIH F32** · UNIVERSITY OF OREGON · 2020 · $67,446

## Abstract

7. PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Caregivers play a pivotal role in shaping child development, with lasting influences documented into adulthood.
Responsive caregiving is a highly conserved behavior that promotes children's social and emotional
development, particularly in the first few years of life. Responsive caregiving is supported by neural regions
associated with reward processing. However, chronic stress and early adversity can disrupt caregiver reward
processing and have negative downstream effects on responsive caregiving. Increased stress is associated
with a blunted reward positivity (RP), which is an event-related potential generated after receiving feedback
that indicates a reward. The RP is also elicited during in vivo observation of another receiving a reward
(observational RP). Functional theories of the observational RP suggest that it represents the motivational
significance and reward of another's actions. Recently, the observational RP has been used to examine
caregiver neural processing of child rewards, suggesting that the caregiver observational RP may be a
potential neurobiological indicator of responsive caregiving. The overall objective of this project is to use
electroencephalogram (EEG) to examine caregivers' neural responses to their child's behavior as a potential
indicator of caregiving reward, and to explore a possible neurobiological mechanism of the impacts of
caregiver stress on responsive caregiving. Ninety caregiver–child dyads (child age 3–6 years) will be recruited
to participate in the proposed study. To measure caregiver reward processing, caregiver EEG will be collected
during two separate tasks, counterbalanced across participants. In the first task, caregivers will complete a
guessing task in which the caregiver's neural responses to their own rewards (RP) and non-rewards (feedback
negativity; FN) will be measured. In the second task, children will complete an analogous guessing task, and
caregiver neural responses to observing their child's rewards (observational RP) and non-rewards
(observational FN) will be measured. Dyads will complete a standardized caregiver–child interaction task that
will be coded on specific features of responsive caregiving, and caregivers will report about stress and early
adversity. To achieve this goal, this project will pursue the following aims: (1) examine the extent to which the
caregiver observational RP predicts caregiving reward, (2) determine the degree to which caregiver stress is
associated with a reduced observational RP, and (3) determine the extent to which the caregiver observational
RP mediates the association between caregiver stress and responsive caregiving. Upon completion of this
project, I will have developed and validated a neural indictor of caregiving reward that can be readily used to
explore the impact of stress on caregiver neurobiology. I will also receive in-depth training in (a) stress and
early adversity, (b) translational neuroscience, and (c) prev...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9844036
- **Project number:** 5F32HD097921-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
- **Principal Investigator:** Tyson Vern Barker
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $67,446
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-01-01 → 2020-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9844036

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9844036, The Influence of Caregiver Stress on Neurobiological Mechanisms of Caregiving Reward and Responsivity (5F32HD097921-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9844036. Licensed CC0.

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