AbstractsPsychology

This thesis had three main aims, firstly to explore the experience of auditory social and non-social stimuli upon infants brain functioning. Secondly to explore the role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in social and non-social visual processing and anxiety. Lastly, to investigate the effect of a mother's depression upon infant behaviour. Chapter 1 explored the literature surrounding social and non-social processing in infancy, the role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the effect of depression upon mother-infant interactions and brain functioning. Chapter 2 described the methods used within this thesis. Chapter 3 investigated the impact of speech and non-speech processing upon infant brain functioning. Social and non-social processing in the PFC in infancy was explored in chapter 4. Chapter 5 looked at the impact of a mothers anxiety upon infant frontal asymmetries. Meta-analyses were conducted in Chapter 6 to investigate differences in behaviour in the still-face paradigm between infants of depressed and infants of non-depressed mothers. Chapter 7 summarised the results of the thesis in terms of findings, implications of the results, directions for future work and limitations of the current thesis.