Frontal EEG Asymmetry in Fathers who use Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) among parents impacts their child’s development both directly through exposure to violence and indirectly through disruptions in parenting. In particular, use of IPV may affect how fathers respond to infant crying, including at a neurophysiological level. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether use of IPV behavior is associated with differences in fathers’ neural response to infant’s cries. Frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry, as an index of motivational tendencies, was assessed in 25 fathers who used IPV in the last 12 months and 19 fathers with no history of IPV in response to videos of an infant crying, white noise as an aversive control stimulus, and a baseline (no stimulus) condition. Across all conditions, fathers with and without IPV history evidenced greater left frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA), consistent with greater approach motivation. Relative to baseline, infant cries elicited a decrease in left FAA in both groups, whereas white noise elicited different responses between fathers with and without IPV histories, namely less change in FAA from baseline in fathers who used IPV. This suggests similar shifts in motivational intensity in fathers in response to infant cries, but not white noise. Across the sample, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) were positively associated with FAA response to white noise. Together these results reveal neural differences between fathers with and without IPV histories, potentially linked to experiences of childhood adversity.