Mother infant interaction in depressive mothers using Near-infrared spectroscopy(NIRS)

2012 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23653199
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Clinical psychology
• Research Institution: Nagoya University
• Principal Investigator: HONJO Shuji 名古屋大学, 発達心理精神科学教育研究センター, 教授 (90181544)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KANEKO Hitoshi 名古屋大学, 発達心理精神科学教育研究センター, 教授 (80345876) ; NOMURA Kenji 名古屋大学, 発達心理精神科学教育研究センター, 特任准教授 (50345899) ; YOSHIKAWA Toru 名古屋大学, 医学部附属病院, 助教 (70456680)
• Project Period (FY): 2011 – 2012
• Keywords: 母子相互作用 / NIRS / 産後うつ病

Research Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine differences in the prefrontal cortex blood flow in babies when cuddled by their depressed mothers and their normal mothers. The depressive emotions of the mothers were measured using the Edinburgh PostnatalDepression Scale (EPDS). Then, by using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), the changes in the cerebral blood flow were measured while mothers with high EPDS scores and those with low scores interacted with their babies. The results showed that when mothers with high depression scores interacted with their babies, no major changes in hemoglobin concentrations occurred before and after the interaction; however, the oxyhemoglobin concentrations increased immediately after the interaction began. This suggests that changes in the cerebral blood flow duringmother-child interactions vary depending on the level of depression that the mother is experiencing. However, further data are required to carefully verify the reproducibility of these results.

Research Products

• [Presentation] Hemodynamic changes in infants' prefrontal cortex when viewing maternal facial expressions: A near-infrared spectroscopic study (2011)
  • Author(s): Yamamoto H, Yoshikawa T, Ito H, Nomura K, Yasunaga K, & Kaneko H
  • Organizer: The 12th European Congress of Psychology
  • Place of Presentation: Istanbul, Turkey.
  • Year and Date: 2011-06-13
• [Presentation] Hemodynamic activation in infant's prefrontal and occipital cortices when viewing maternal facial expressions: A near-infrared spectroscopic study (2011)
  • Author(s): Yamamoto, H., Yoshikawa, T., Ito, H., Nomura, K., Yasunaga, K., & Kaneko H
  • Organizer: 19th European Congress of Psychiatry
  • Place of Presentation: Vienna, Austria.
  • Year and Date: 2011-03-06
• [Book] heophanides T (Ed.) Infrared Spectroscopy - Life and Biomedical Sciences (2012)
  • Author(s): Kaneko H, Yoshikawa T, Ito H, Nomura K, Okada T & Honjo S
  • Total Pages: 151-164
• [Remarks] 名古屋大学脳とこころの研究センター・実際の応用研究紹介
  • URL: http://www.med.nagoya-u.ac.jp/noutokokoro/introduction/introduction15.html