Relative right frontal EEG activation in 3- to 6-month-old infants of "depressed" mothers.

Field, Tiffany, Fox, Nathan A., Pickens, Jeffrey, Nawrocki, Tom·1995·Developmental Psychology
DOI 10.1037//0012-1649.31.3.358

Abstract

Brain electrical activity (electroencephalogram; EEG) was recorded from left and right frontal (F) and parietal (P) scalp regions (F3, F4, P3, and P4, referenced to the central vertex site, Cz) in a sample of depressed and nondepressed mothers and their 3-6-month-old infants. A greater number of depressed mothers and their infants vs. nondepressed mothers and their infants displayed right frontal EEG asymmetry. These data indicate that the depressed affect exhibited by infants of depressed mothers is associated with a pattern of brain electrical activity similar to that found in inhibited infants and children and in chronically depressed adults. Further research is required to determine whether the EEG pattern is a marker of current or chronic mood state

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Cited by (26)

  1. Frontal EEG asymmetry as a moderator and mediator of emotion
    Coan, James A, Allen, John J.B · 2004 · Biological Psychology
  2. Parent–infant synchrony and the construction of shared timing; physiological precursors, developmental outcomes, and risk conditions
    Feldman, Ruth · 2007 · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
  3. Anterior electrophysiological asymmetries, emotion, and depression: conceptual and methodological conundrums
    Davidson, Richard J. · 1998 · Psychophysiology
  4. Prenatal depression effects on the fetus and newborn: a review
    Field, Tiffany, Diego, Miguel, Hernandez-Reif, Maria · 2006 · Infant Behavior and Development
  5. Neonatal Outcomes After Prenatal Exposure to Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor Antidepressants and Maternal Depression Using Population-Based Linked Health Data
    Oberlander, Tim F., Warburton, William, Misri, Shaila, Aghajanian, Jaafar, Hertzman, Clyde · 2006 · Archives of General Psychiatry

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Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.

This page
CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Relative right frontal EEG activation in 3- to 6-month-old infants of "depressed" mothers. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1037//0012-1649.31.3.358
The paper
Field, T., Fox, N. A., Pickens, J., & Nawrocki, T. (1995). Relative right frontal EEG activation in 3- to 6-month-old infants of "depressed" mothers. Developmental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037//0012-1649.31.3.358

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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.