Investigating the role of executive function in brain responses to infant crying among new parents

Abstract Infant crying is a fundamental communication signal that captures caregiver attention and elicits caregiving responses. Executive function (EF) is critical in managing the cognitive and emotional demands of parenting, particularly in processing infant cues. This study explored the relationship between experienced EF difficulties and neural responses to infant crying among biological birthing parents. Participants were pregnant individuals from the Relationships of Parent–Infant Social, Emotional, and Brain Development project who completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function—Adult Version during the third trimester. Postpartum, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging measured brain activation in response to their own and other infants’ cries, as well as control sounds. Greater experienced EF difficulties during pregnancy were prospectively associated with increased cry-evoked activation in lateral temporal regions, including a conjunction cluster in the left middle temporal gyrus shared across all four EF subdomains, and overlapping recruitment of regions such as the left superior temporal gyrus and right inferior frontal gyrus across multiple subdomains. These findings suggest that caregivers who report greater EF difficulties engage heightened auditory–temporal and control-related neural responses when processing infant distress signals, underscoring the relevance of EF-related individual differences for early parenting neurobiology.