ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 20 November 2015 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01772 Edited by: Silvia Salcuni, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy Reviewed by: Chiara Nosarti, King’s College London, UK Catherine Monk, Columbia University, USA *Correspondence: Pilyoung Kim pilyoung.kim@du.edu Specialty section: This article was submitted to Psychology for Clinical Settings, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology Received: 30 May 2015 Accepted: 04 November 2015 Published: 20 November 2015 Citation: KimP, Rigo P,Leckman JF, Mayes LC, Cole PM, Feldman R and Swain JE (2015) A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Perceived Infant Outcomes at 18–24 Months: Neural and Psychological Correlates of Parental Thoughts and Actions Assessed during the First Month Postpartum. Front. Psychol. 6:1772. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01772 A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Perceived Infant Outcomes at 18–24 Months: Neural and Psychological Correlates of Parental Thoughts and Actions Assessed during the First Month Postpartum Pilyoung Kim 1 *, Paola Rigo 2 , James F. Leckman 3 , Linda C. Mayes 3 , Pamela M. Cole 4 , Ruth Feldman 5 and James E. Swain 3,6 1 Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA, 2 Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Trento, Italy, 3 Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA, 4 Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA, 5 Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, 6 Department of Psychiatry, Psychology, Center for Human Growth and Development, Women and Infants Mental Health Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA The first postpartum months constitute a critical period for parents to establish an emotional bond with their infants. Neural responses to infant-related stimuli have been associated with parental sensitivity. However, the associations among these neural responses, parenting, and later infant outcomes for mothers and fathers are unknown. In the current longitudinal study, we investigated the relationships between parental thoughts/actions and neural activation in mothers and fathers in the neonatal period with infant outcomes at the toddler stage. At the first month postpartum, mothers (n = 21) and fathers (n = 19) underwent a neuroimaging session during which they listened to their own and unfamiliar baby’s cry. Parenting-related thoughts/behaviors were assessed by interview twice at the first month and 3–4 months postpartum and infants’ socioemotional outcomes were reported by mothers and fathers at 18– 24 months postpartum. In mothers, higher levels of anxious thoughts/actions about parenting at the first month postpartum, but not at 3–4 months postpartum, were associated with infant’s low socioemotional competencies at 18–24 months. Anxious thoughts/actions were also associated with heightened responses in the motor cortex and reduced responses in the substantia nigra to own infant cry sounds. On the other hand, in fathers, higher levels of positive perception of being a parent at the first month postpartum, but not at 3–4 months postpartum, were associated with higher infant socioemotional competencies at 18–24 months. Positive thoughts were associated with heightened responses in the auditory cortex and caudate to own infant cry sounds. The current study provides evidence that parental thoughts are related to concurrent neural responses to their infants at the first month postpartum as well as their infant’s future socioemotional outcome at 18–24 months. Parent differences suggest that anxious thoughts in mothers and positive thoughts in fathers may be the targets for parenting-focused interventions very early postpartum. Keywords: father, mother, parenting, postpartum, neuroimaging, infant, socioemotional development Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 1 November 2015 | Volume 6 | Article 1772