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Parental behaviors are known to affect neurophysiological development in young children, but the origins of these effects have been unclear. These investigators examined whether interparental conflict might affect specific neurophysiological processes in young infants, who are known to be sensitive to environmental signals (JW Psychiatry May 13 2013).
Mothers of 20 infants aged 6 to 12 months rated the extent of nonphysical interparental conflict in their marital relationships. During periods of natural sleep, the infants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while being exposed to recorded voices reciting nonsense-word sentences in very or mildly angry, happy, or neutral vocal tones. In response to “very angry” speech compa…