Judith Morgan
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Psychology
Early parent–child interactions shape the brain systems that let children feel pleasure, stay motivated, and manage emotions. Maternal depression can disrupt these interactions, and that may raise a child's own later risk of depression.
- Fields
Psychology
Neuroscience
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
maternal depression
postpartum depression
reward processing
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jun 2029
What they work on
- Test whether coaching depressed mothers to encourage their child's positive emotions, using PCIT-ED modules, increases 4- to 6-year-olds' neural reward response, measured with the RewP and LPP event-related potentials, in a 180-family randomized trial.
- Assess changes in mothers' self-reported positive emotion socialization alongside children's brain responses during reward tasks done with mothers present.
- Characterize mother–infant biobehavioral synchrony at 3 months postpartum, meaning matched emotional behavior and frontal brain activity, using simultaneous NIRS hyperscanning and moment-by-moment behavioral coding.
- Examine how postpartum depression severity relates, now and over time, to mother–infant positive synchrony, and whether improved synchrony predicts infant emotional regulation at 9 months.
More about the research
The two projects here ask how a depressed mother's interactions with her child influence the child's developing brain and emotional regulation. One project studies infants after postpartum depression. The other studies preschoolers. Both focus on positive emotion rather than only on negative emotion and deficits.
Why it matters
Children of mothers with depression are at higher risk for emotional problems, including depression. Showing that specific parenting behaviors change a child's reward-related brain activity, or that mother–infant synchrony supports infant self-regulation, could point to concrete targets for preventive interventions. Such programs could help families affected by postpartum and maternal depression during infancy and the preschool years.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Katherine Nelson-Coffey
Arizona State University Campus Immersion, AZ·Psychology
Track changes in loneliness and social connectedness among first-time expecting mothers and fathers from pregnancy through four months postpartum.
Angela Gutchess
Brandeis University, MA·Psychology
Test whether the self-reference effect, the memory boost from relating information to oneself, differs among non-Hispanic White, second-generation Chinese American and second-generation Mexican American adults.
Ashley Nielsen
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Neuroscience·Early-career
Code parent-child interaction videos at age 1 to measure unpredictability in parents' sensory signals (visual, auditory, touch) and in their emotional signals (inconsistent nurturing or support).
The school
University of Pittsburgh: 83 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 403 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.