Infants of depressed mothers exhibit atypical frontal electrical brain activity during interactions with mother and with a familiar, nondepressed adult

Previous studies have shown that infants of depressed mothers exhibit atypi cal frontal brain electrical activity when they are interacting with their mothers. Whereas typically developing infants exhibit greater left versus r ight frontal brain activity, infants of depressed mothers have been found t o exhibit reduced relative left frontal activity. The left frontal brain re gion has been associated with the expression of positive emotions. In the p resent study, the question of whether the atypical pattern of brain activit y found in infants of depressed mothers generalizes to situations not invol ving mother was addressed. Brain electrical activity was recorded from 13- to 15-month-old infants of depressed (N = 59) versus nondepressed (N = 40) mothers during a baseline condition, and during several social conditions t hat included a playful social interaction with a familiar experimenter. Inf ants of depressed mothers exhibited reduced left relative to right frontal activity during the baseline condition, and during interactions with their mothers and with the familiar experimenter. The present results suggest tha t the atypical pattern of electrical brain activity found in infants of dep ressed mothers generalizes to a variety of situations, including positive i nteractions with nondepressed adults.