Neural Correlates of Emotion Processing in Typically Developing Children and Children of Diabetic Mothers

To examine the neurocognitive sequelae of children born to diabetic mothers (CDMs), event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to three facial expressions (happy, fear, anger) were collected from 42 children (18 CDMs, 24 controls), aged 36 and/or 48 months. A linear mixed models approach was used to model individual variation in amplitude and latency. As infants, CDMs in the present study displayed subtle impairments in attention and memory processing, including face recognition, as indexed by ERPs. Findings indicate that these same children, now ages 3-4 years, continue to display ERP patterns that differ from controls in amplitude, latency, and hemispheric asymmetry.