Neural and behavioral effects of parent training on emotion recognition in mothers rearing children with ADHD

This randomized controlled study examined neurological changes in socioemotional processing skills through parent training in caregivers of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Thirty mothers of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder were stratified into parent training and non-parent training groups. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed during the “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” test, and parenting difficulties were evaluated using the Parenting Stress Index and the Parenting Scale, twice (before and after parent training). Only mothers in the parent training group showed a significant decrease in Parenting Stress Index and Parenting Scale scores. They also demonstrated increased activity in the left occipital fusiform gyrus during the task of estimating emotions from facial pictures, with a trend towards a reduced response time while judging others’ emotional state in the “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” test. We presumed that these changes might reflect that enrollment in parent training could reduce stress, which in turn might possibly reduce reaction times in processing others’ emotional states. Furthermore, these results may also be related to the increased activation of the fusiform gyrus.