Parents’ behavior is one factor in a long list of underlying mechanisms that can affect childhood development, but little is known about the way these behaviors influence mother-infant attention. This link has become a focus of Foster’s research.

“One theorized mechanism through which depression develops and is maintained is through attention bias — how people pay attention to and disengage from certain emotional information such as facial expressions,” Foster says. “We see attention bias in adults with depression. We see it in adolescents and children, but we know less about infants.”

The results from the studies conducted so far seem to show that depression is too complex to rely only on attention bias, since outcomes vary greatly family to family. Foster says other mechanisms beyond attention bias, including environment and genetics, may also play a part in conferring risk factors.

Since the fall of 2017, when Foster joined the Mood Disorder Institute after earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Cornell University, understanding infants’ needs has been key to her research. As a second-year graduate student studying clinical psychology, she has written several papers on the subject and worked with a number of families and pediatrician offices within the lab.

Brandon Gibb, a professor of psychology at Binghamton University and the director of clinical training for the Mood Disorder Institute, says Foster is a smart and motivated part of the team, working toward a common goal: reducing the risk for depression, however it may present itself.

“She’s just a really warm, caring and nice person. And it makes her an even better team member,” Gibb says. “I think one thing [about Claire] is the sheer joy she has when she starts talking about doing infant research. One, because I think she enjoys it so much, but also because she recognizes how important it is.”

Foster recently received a 2019 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which will effectively fund the next three years of her schooling and proposed study, as well as expand her professional outreach and opportunities.

Since its founding in 1951, the competitive fellowship has supported more than 50,000 STEM students. Foster is the latest of three students and a former lab manager at the Mood Disorder Institute to be awarded the fellowship.

The relationships and factors that influence depression and attention bias in children are what Foster hopes to learn more about with her research in the upcoming years. Since she first became interested in clinical psychology, Foster has been driven to help people through her studies. This need led her to volunteer in Romania after learning about the treatment of institutionalized orphans. It also informed her work at the Yale Child Study Center, where she studied autism, and at the Cornell University B.A.B.Y (Behavioral Analysis of Beginning Years) Lab, where she studied as an undergraduate.

“I think the most important thing was the implications for families, how this information can impact people’s lives. Because I feel there is sometimes a disconnect between research and what families get in treatment,” Foster says. “If I can help improve our understanding of how these things develop, then we can better understand how to treat them.”

Brandon Gibb, associate professor of psychology and director of clinical training at Binghamton University, said he’s interested in genetic and environmental factors that may contribute to anxiety and depression. Identifying such factors early — he’s studying 7- to 11-year-olds — may make it easier to figure out which children need extra help before they hit the turbulence of adolescence.

The study will zero in on “attentional biases,” which occur when children and adults focus their attention too much on, or have difficulty pulling their attention from, something negative or threatening in such a way that it affects their mood for a prolonged period.

“We like to think of things in evolutionary terms,” Gibb said. “It’s an advantage, if you see something threatening in your environment, to pick up on it quickly so you can either fight it or run away. However, if you are constantly looking out for danger even when you are in an objectively safe environment, that can lead to problems with anxiety.  With depression the attentional bias appears to be different; there’s no bias in where you initially attend. But once you get stuck on something negative, then you have a hard time pulling yourself away from it.”

As Gibb embarks on this four-year study, with $2.9 million in support from the National Institute of Mental Health, he’s also wrapping up an earlier project. In that study, 255 children and their mothers were assessed every six months for two years. The team is still analyzing its data, but Gibb said it’s already clear that children whose mothers have experienced depression have a higher risk of being depressed themselves. Their lives also have a lot more stress. “If you have a mom with a history of depression,” he said, “your life is more stressful: at home, at school and with your peers.”

That project has informed the new one, and Gibb said he and his colleagues hope to find out more about which components of attention are disrupted in depression and anxiety. “We’re trying to tease apart what’s unique to one or the other as well as what’s shared by both disorders,” he explained.

The researchers will look at the combined influence of a number of genes operating within brain regions thought to underlie these patterns of attention and mood. Gibb’s team includes colleagues at Stony Brook University, Providence VA Medical Center, Rhode Island Hospital and the University of California, Davis. All of the research subjects will be drawn from the Binghamton area, with the other researchers focusing on the genetic testing.

This study fits into a broader effort in psychology, in which disorders have historically been diagnosed based on clinical observations. Now, the field is trying to base diagnoses not only on such observations but also on findings from genetic and neuroimaging research. “We think attention is a key mechanism that cuts across current diagnostic boundaries,” Gibb said.

Suicide is the third-leading cause of death among 10- to 14-year-olds and 15- to 24-year-olds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gibb said he’s motivated by the need to do more than document that problem; he wants to do something about it.

“We know that kids get on a developmental trajectory, and we know it’s a lot easier to change that trajectory the earlier you catch it,” he said. “Both risk and resilience start early.”

How do you spot depression or anxiety in a child? First, you have to differentiate normal ups and downs from more enduring problems. “Everyone will have a really anxious day or a really sad day every once in a while,” Gibb said. “But when it lasts for weeks on end and interferes with school work or friends or something else, we know it’s a problem. In kids, with depression and to some extent with anxiety, it may show itself as irritability more than sadness or fear. That’s the only real difference from how depression or anxiety looks in an adult.”

There are promising interventions, he added. But most of them are in use with adults because these disorders aren’t as well understood in children.

“In the 1980s, there was a lot of discussion about whether kids could even get depressed,” Gibb said. “Now we know they can, and we’re trying to figure out what to do about it. With these early markers, we can spot the kids who are at risk and do something.”