Infant-directed (ID) speech is an important source of stimulation for young infants, but depressed mothers produce ID speech that is perceptually and affectively flat (1,2). Four-month-old infants of depressed mothers exhibit associative learning deficits in a conditioned-attention paradigm, in which a brief segment of their own mother's ID speech signals the appearance of a smiling face (3). Six- to 13-month-old infants of chroncially depressed mothers, unlike 4-month-olds, further fail to learn in response to """"""""high-quality"""""""" ID speech produced by an unfamiliar non-depressed mother (4). However, these older infants exhibit better- than-normal learning in response to male ID speech (4). The proposed research has three Specific Aims.
Specific Aim 1 is to investigate the development of the generalized learning deficit in response to maternal ID speech by giving individual infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers associative learning tests with """"""""high-quality"""""""" maternal and paternal ID speech at both 4 and 12 months of age.
Specific Aim 2 is to examine the relationship between infant learning in response to the infant's own depressed and/or non-depressed mother's and father's ID speech, and whether the quality of parent-infant interaction and attachment relationships mediate the effects of ID speech on infant learning.
Specific Aim 3 is to assess 12-month-old infants whose mothers and fathers are both chronically depressed for their responses to """"""""high-quality"""""""" ID speech produced by unfamiliar non-depressed mothers and fathers, to determine if these infants exhibit the broadest learning deficits. These studies are important because they permit a rigorous analysis of the development of learning deficits in infants of chronically depressed mothers, and point to a plausible mechanism through which initially able learners develop generalized learning deficits. These experiments promise to lay the foundation for future studies aimed at preventing learning problems in infants of depressed mothers.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
7R01HD049732-04
Application #
7601259
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-BBBP-K (90))
Program Officer
Maholmes, Valerie
Project Start
2006-04-10
Project End
2010-03-31
Budget Start
2008-04-03
Budget End
2010-03-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2008
Total Cost
$169,415
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Colorado Denver
Department
Type
DUNS #
041096314
City
Aurora
State
CO
Country
United States
Zip Code
80045
Kaplan, Peter S; Asherin, Ryan M; Vogeli, Jo M et al. (2018) Face Preferences for Infant- and Adult-Directed Speakers in Infants of Depressed and Nondepressed Mothers: Association with Infant Cognitive Development. Infancy 23:325-341
Kaplan, Peter S; Danko, Christina M; Cejka, Anna M et al. (2015) Maternal depression and the learning-promoting effects of infant-directed speech: Roles of maternal sensitivity, depression diagnosis, and speech acoustic cues. Infant Behav Dev 41:52-63
Porritt, Laura L; Zinser, Michael C; Bachorowski, Jo-Anne et al. (2014) Depression Diagnoses and Fundamental Frequency-Based Acoustic Cues in Maternal Infant-Directed Speech. Lang Learn Dev 10:51-67
Kaplan, Peter S; Danko, Christina M; Everhart, Kevin D et al. (2014) Maternal depression and expressive communication in one-year-old infants. Infant Behav Dev 37:398-405
Kaplan, Peter S; Danko, Christina M; Kalinka, Christina J et al. (2012) A developmental decline in the learning-promoting effects of infant-directed speech for infants of mothers with chronically elevated symptoms of depression. Infant Behav Dev 35:369-79
Kaplan, Peter S; Danko, Christina M; Diaz, Andres et al. (2011) An associative learning deficit in 1-year-old infants of depressed mothers: role of depression duration. Infant Behav Dev 34:35-44
Kaplan, Peter S; Burgess, Aaron P; Sliter, Jessica K et al. (2009) Maternal Sensitivity and the Learning-Promoting Effects of Depressed and Non-Depressed Mothers' Infant-Directed Speech. Infancy 14:143-161
Kaplan, Peter S; Sliter, Jessica K; Burgess, Aaron P (2007) Infant-directed speech produced by fathers with symptoms of depression: effects on infant associative learning in a conditioned-attention paradigm. Infant Behav Dev 30:535-45