Faculty Bibliography

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND:The impact of maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection on fetal brain development during pregnancy remains unclear. Prior research has associated other antenatal infections with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in offspring. OBJECTIVE:To compare neurodevelopmental outcomes in infants born to mothers infected with SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy (COVID+) to infants without congenital exposure (COVID-). METHODS:This study included 77 COVID+ infants and 157 COVID- infants assessed at 6 and/or 12 months. Outcomes were based on maternal self-report, observed infant behavior and brain fMRI. RESULTS:Overall, COVID+ and COVID- infant groups showed no significant differences across a range of neurobehavioral measures. However, analyses not adjusted for multiple comparisons revealed differences: fewer night awakenings at 6 (t(154) = 2.24, p < 0.03) and 12 months (t(107) = 1.94, p < 0.05), and reduced duration of orienting at 12 months (t(55.38) = 2.15, p < 0.04) in COVID+ infants. Neural differences were noted in posterior-anterior midline, insular-frontal, insular-posterior cingulate, and frontal-cingulate regions at an uncorrected threshold of p < 0.01. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:This study of multi-level infant development suggests that infants born to mothers infected with COVID during pregnancy are not experiencing harmful effects of that exposure. IMPACT/CONCLUSIONS:This study contributes comprehensive data on infant neurodevelopmental outcomes following prenatal SARS-CoV-2 exposure, evaluating a wide range of behavioral and neural measures to address gaps in previous research. Findings suggest that congenital exposure to SARS-CoV-2 does not result in significant neurodevelopmental impairments in infants, offering reassurance amidst concerns about potential long-term effects of maternal prenatal COVID-19 infection. Results indicate that any observed differences, such as fewer night awakenings and functional neural connectivity patterns, may reflect a more mature developmental profile in the exposed group. Continued longitudinal research is necessary to understand behaviorally relevant and lasting neurodevelopmental effects of prenatal SARS-CoV-2 exposure.

Maternal mental health during the perinatal period has been linked to the development of infant emotion regulation capacity, largely through its impact on caregiver-infant interactions during the first year of life. The majority of studies have focused on the effects of maternal depression, even though maternal anxiety is more prevalent and its effects on infant outcomes are less well understood. The current study aims to 1) explore differences in infant affect and regulatory behaviors across two commonly implemented infant stress-induction paradigms and 2) evaluate the differential effects of depression and anxiety on infant regulatory behaviors. Six-month-old infants and their mothers (N = 126) completed two tasks remotely in the home: the Arm Restraint task and the Still-Face Paradigm. Maternal depression and anxiety symptoms were measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) subscales. Within-person results indicated no significant associations among infant regulatory behaviors nor infant reactivity across the two paradigms. Additionally, no significant associations were found between maternal mental health and infant regulatory behaviors during the Still-Face Paradigm. However, higher EPDS composite scores were associated with fewer infant avoidance behaviors during the Arm Restraint task, and this result was driven by items on the anxiety subscale. These findings suggest that infant regulatory behaviors may differ depending on task used and may also be influenced by subclinical levels of maternal anxiety, but not maternal depression.

Lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are still of grave concern to families within the U.S. Latine community, as pre-pandemic disparities in healthcare and economic stability were significantly exacerbated by the global crisis (Martínez et al., 2021). In this mixed-methods study, we interviewed 42 pregnant and postpartum Latine mothers from low-income households living in the New York Metropolitan area to better understand pandemic related challenges and potential sources of support unique to this group of women. First, we identified broad themes related to specific psychosocial stressors impacting Latine mothers and their families. Second, in an effort to investigate coping strategies that may buffer feelings of persistent stress, mothers were divided into sustained-stress and tapered-stress groups based on reported levels of perceived stress during the height of the pandemic (March-April 2020) compared to the time of interview (August-December 2020). These two groups of mothers were significantly different on levels of PTSD symptoms, social support, and perceived discrimination. Notably, mothers in the tapered-stress group who reported lower-levels of stress at the time of interview described experiences of being distracted by daily activities or by family members as a coping mechanism. Together, these findings highlight the need to address structural barriers and improve access to mental health support in order to mitigate continuing sources of pandemic related stressors for Latine families.

Growing evidence suggests that infant attention may predict subsequent cognitive outcomes. However, prior studies have predominantly tested small samples of infants in tightly controlled laboratory settings that differ from the complex, visually rich environments that infants experience in their day-to-day lives. The present study addresses this gap by measuring infant sustained attention in the home using novel remote webcam eye tracking methodology. A large, demographically diverse sample of 3- to 12-month-old infants (N = 160; 49% = female; 65% from low- to extremely low-income households; 48% White, 18% Black, 16% Hispanic/Latine, 9% more than one race, 5% Asian, and 4% other) were recruited across the United States. Infants were remotely administered a free-viewing video task previously validated in lab-based studies, and infant look durations and gaze shifts were measured using remote webcam eye tracking. Our results revealed expected age-related changes in infant look durations and no effects of family demographics on variations in infant attention. Notably, we also found that variation in infant attention predicted emerging executive functions in a subset of infants (N = 78) who participated in a subsequent longitudinal assessment using the Early Executive Functions Questionnaire. This research adds to a growing literature validating the use of at-home remote assessments for objective measurement of infant cognition. This is a notable step toward advancing ecological validity and accessibility of developmental psychology studies in diverse samples. Ultimately, these findings may have important implications for characterizing normative developmental trajectories and for understanding how early sociocultural contexts shape these trajectories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

The HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study, a multi-site prospective longitudinal cohort study, will examine human brain, cognitive, behavioral, social, and emotional development beginning prenatally and planned through early childhood. Electroencephalography (EEG) is one of two brain imaging modalities central to the HBCD Study. EEG records electrical signals from the scalp that reflect electrical brain activity. In addition, the EEG signal can be synchronized to the presentation of discrete stimuli (auditory or visual) to measure specific cognitive processes with excellent temporal precision (e.g., event-related potentials; ERPs). EEG is particularly helpful for the HBCD Study as it can be used with awake, alert infants, and can be acquired continuously across development. The current paper reviews the HBCD Study's EEG/ERP protocol: (a) the selection and development of the tasks (Video Resting State, Visual Evoked Potential, Auditory Oddball, Face Processing); (b) the implementation of common cross-site acquisition parameters and hardware, site setup, training, and initial piloting; (c) the development of the preprocessing pipelines and creation of derivatives; and (d) the incorporation of equity and inclusion considerations. The paper also provides an overview of the functioning of the EEG Workgroup and the input from members across all steps of protocol development and piloting.

Previous research has demonstrated a critical link between maternal mental health and infant development. However, there is limited understanding of the role of autonomic regulation in postpartum maternal mental health and infant outcomes. In the current study, we tested 76 mother-infant dyads from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds when infants were 3-months of age. We recorded simultaneous ECG from dyads while baseline EEG was collected from the infant; ECG heart rate variability (HRV) and EEG theta-beta ratio and alpha asymmetry were calculated. Dyadic physiological synchrony was also analyzed to better understand the role of autonomic co-regulation. Results demonstrated that lower maternal HRV was associated with higher self-reported maternal depression and anxiety. Additionally, mothers with lower HRV had infants with lower HRV. Maternal HRV was also associated with higher infant theta-beta ratios, but not alpha asymmetry. Exploratory analyses suggested that for mother-infant dyads with greater physiological synchrony, higher maternal HRV predicted increased infant theta-beta ratio via infant HRV. These findings support a model in which maternal mental health may influence infant neurophysiology via alterations in autonomic stress regulation and dyadic physiological co-regulation.

BACKGROUND:The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered the psychosocial environment of pregnant women and new mothers. In addition, prenatal infection is a known risk factor for altered fetal development. Here we examine joint effects of maternal psychosocial stress and COVID-19 infection during pregnancy on infant attention at 6 months postpartum. METHOD/METHODS:One-hundred and sixty-seven pregnant mothers and infants (40% non-White; n = 71 females) were recruited in New York City (n = 50 COVID+, n = 117 COVID-). Infants' attentional processing was assessed at 6 months, and socioemotional function and neurodevelopmental risk were evaluated at 12 months. RESULTS:Maternal psychosocial stress and COVID-19 infection during pregnancy jointly predicted infant attention at 6 months. In mothers reporting positive COVID-19 infection, higher prenatal psychosocial stress was associated with lower infant attention at 6 months. Exploratory analyses indicated that infant attention in turn predicted socioemotional function and neurodevelopmental risk at 12 months. CONCLUSIONS:These data suggest that maternal psychosocial stress and COVID-19 infection during pregnancy may have joint effects on infant attention at 6 months. This work adds to a growing literature on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on infant development, and may point to maternal psychosocial stress as an important target for intervention. IMPACT/CONCLUSIONS:This study found that elevated maternal psychosocial stress and COVID-19 infection during pregnancy jointly predicted lower infant attention scores at 6 months, which is a known marker of risk for neurodevelopmental disorder. In turn, infant attention predicted socioemotional function and risk for neurodevelopmental disorder at 12 months. These data suggest that maternal psychosocial stress may modulate the effects of gestational infection on neurodevelopment and highlight malleable targets for intervention.

BACKGROUND:Maternal stress has negative consequences on infant behavioral development, and COVID-19 presented uniquely stressful situations to mothers of infants born during the pandemic. We hypothesized that mothers with higher levels of perceived stress during the pandemic would report higher levels of infant regulatory problems including crying and interrupted sleep patterns. METHODS:As part 6 sites of a longitudinal study, mothers of infants born during the pandemic completed the Perceived Stress Scale, the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire, and an Infant Crying survey at 6 (n = 433) and 12 (n = 344) months of infant age. RESULTS:Maternal perceived stress, which remained consistent at 6 and 12 months of infant age, was significantly positively correlated with time taken to settle infants. Although maternal perceived stress was not correlated with uninterrupted sleep length, time taken to put the infant to sleep was correlated. Perceived stress was also correlated with the amount of infant crying and fussiness reported at 6 months. CONCLUSIONS:Mothers who reported higher levels of perceived stress during the pandemic reported higher levels of regulatory problems, specifically at 6 months. Examining how varying levels of maternal stress and infant behaviors relate to overall infant developmental status over time is an important next step. IMPACT/CONCLUSIONS:Women giving birth during the COVID-19 pandemic who reported higher levels of stress on the Perceived Stress Scale also reported higher levels of infant fussiness and crying at 6 months old, and more disruptive sleep patterns in their infants at 6 months and 12 months old. Sleeping problems and excessive crying in infancy are two regulatory problems that are known risk factors for emotional and behavioral issues in later childhood. This paper is one of the first studies highlighting the associations between maternal stress and infant behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting public health directives led to many changes in families' social and material environments. Prior research suggests that these changes are likely to impact composition of the gut microbiome, particularly during early childhood when the gut microbiome is developing most rapidly. Importantly, disruption to the gut microbiome during this sensitive period can have potentially long-lasting impacts on health and development. In the current study, we compare gut microbiome composition among a socioeconomically and racially diverse group of 12-month old infants living in New York City who provided stool samples before the pandemic (N = 34) to a group who provided samples during the first 9-months of the pandemic (March-December 2020; N = 20). We found that infants sampled during the pandemic had lower alpha diversity of the microbiome, lower abundance of Pasteurellaceae and Haemophilus, and significantly different beta diversity based on unweighted Unifrac distance than infants sampled before the pandemic. Exploratory analyses suggest that gut microbiome changes due to the pandemic occurred relatively quickly after the start of the pandemic and were sustained. Our results provide evidence that pandemic-related environmental disruptions had an impact on community-level taxonomic diversity of the developing gut microbiome, as well as abundance of specific members of the gut bacterial community.

The home auditory environment influences the development of early language abilities, and excessive noise exposure is increasingly linked with deficits in language and reading scores in children. However, fewer studies have considered the role of noise exposure in shaping the development of attentional processing in early infancy, a foundational neurocognitive skill relevant for learning. Here, we used passive at-home auditory recording to investigate how multiple dimensions of infants' home auditory environments, including both the quantity and the predictability of auditory input, impacts neural and behavioral measures of sustained attention in a sociodemographically diverse sample of 3-month-old infants (N = 98 infants, 62 males; age M = 3.48 months, SD = 0.39; 52% Hispanic/Latino). Results indicated that infants who were exposed to more predictable patterns of auditory input in the home demonstrated longer overall time in sustained attention during laboratory assessments. In addition, infants' who experienced more predictable auditory input also demonstrated greater relative increases in electroencephalography frontal theta power during periods of sustained attention, a neural marker relevant to information processing and attentional control. These findings provide novel evidence into the importance of the predictability of early environmental inputs in shaping developing cortical circuitry and attentional systems from the first months of postnatal life.