Relevant Citations:
Mulligan, E. M., Simon, J., Lowe, M., Santopetro, N., Flynn, H., Hajcak, G. (2022). The P300 and late positive potential in pregnancy prospectively predict increases in depressive and anxious symptoms in the early postpartum period. Journal of Affective Disorders, 317, 193-203.
Mulligan, E. M. & Hajcak, G. (2022). Letter to the editor: Response to “A common neural correlate for affective and monetary reward”. Biological Psychology, 108347.
Mulligan, E. M., Lowe, M., Flynn, H., Hajcak, G. (October 2021). The antenatal error-related negativity prospectively predicts the impact of Covid-19 on postnatal mental health via increased internalizing symptoms across the perinatal period. Poster presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research. Presented virtually due to COVID-19.
Mulligan, E. M., Lowe, M., Flynn, H., Hajcak, G. (2021). The rewards of motherhood: Neural response to reward in pregnancy prospectively predicts maternal bonding with the infant in the postpartum period. Biological Psychology, 163, 108148.
Mulligan, E. M., Flynn, H., Hajcak, G. (October 2019). Neural insensitivity to reward: A potential risk factor for perinatal depression. Oral presentation at Florida’s 4th Annual Perinatal Mental Health Conference in Gainesville, FL.
Mulligan, E. M., Flynn, H., Hajcak, G. (2018). Neural response to reward and psychosocial risk factors independently predict antenatal depressive symptoms. Biological Psychology, 147, 107622.
Neural correlates of perinatal depression and anxiety
Funded by an NIMH R21 grant (R21 MH116481; PI: Hajcak) at Florida State University, this study examines whether event-related potentials (ERPs) measured in pregnancy predict changes in depression and anxiety symptoms across the perinatal period. The goal of this project is to determine whether measures of reward-related neural activity could be used to improve the prediction of increased depression during the postpartum period.
We brought EEG systems into a community OB/GYN clinic to collect data from pregnant patients before and after their obstetrical appointments and also followed up with them in the postnatal period.
So far, we have found that blunted neural reward responsiveness in pregnancy is a predictor of increased depressive symptoms in pregnancy, worse course of depressive symptoms in the late postpartum period, and poorer maternal bonding with the infant. We have also found two ERP predictors of increased depression and anxiety in the early postpartum period: the P300 and the late positive potential (LPP).