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Specifying the neurobiological basis of human attachment: brain, hormones, and behavior in synchronous and intrusive mothers.

ABSTRACT: The mother-infant bond provides the foundation for the infant's future mental health and adaptation and depends on the provision of species-typical maternal behaviors that are supported by neuroendocrine and motivation-affective neural systems. Animal research has demonstrated that natural variations in patterns of maternal care chart discrete profiles of maternal brain-behavior relationships that uniquely shape the infant's lifetime capacities for stress regulation and social affiliation. Such patterns of maternal care are mediated by the neuropeptide Oxytocin and by stress- and reward-related neural systems. Human studies have similarly shown that maternal synchrony--the coordination of maternal behavior with infant signals--and intrusiveness--the excessive expression of maternal behavior--describe distinct and stable maternal styles that bear long-term consequences for infant well-being. To integrate brain, hormones, and behavior in the study of maternal-infant bonding, we examined the fMRI responses of synchronous vs intrusive mothers to dynamic, ecologically valid infant videos and their correlations with plasma Oxytocin. In all, 23 mothers were videotaped at home interacting with their infants and plasma OT assayed. Sessions were micro-coded for synchrony and intrusiveness. Mothers were scanned while observing several own and standard infant-related vignettes. Synchronous mothers showed greater activations in the left nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and intrusive mothers exhibited higher activations in the right amygdala. Functional connectivity analysis revealed that among synchronous mothers, left NAcc and right amygdala were functionally correlated with emotion modulation, theory-of-mind, and empathy networks. Among intrusive mothers, left NAcc and right amygdala were functionally correlated with pro-action areas. Sorting points into neighborhood (SPIN) analysis demonstrated that in the synchronous group, left NAcc and right amygdala activations showed clearer organization across time, whereas among intrusive mothers, activations of these nuclei exhibited greater cross-time disorganization. Correlations between Oxytocin with left NAcc and right amygdala activations were found only in the synchronous group. Well-adapted parenting appears to be underlay by reward-related motivational mechanisms, temporal organization, and affiliation hormones, whereas anxious parenting is likely mediated by stress-related mechanisms and greater neural disorganization. Assessing the integration of motivation and social networks into unified neural activity that reflects variations in patterns of parental care may prove useful for the study of optimal vs high-risk parenting.

SUBMITTER: Atzil S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3230500 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Specifying the neurobiological basis of human attachment: brain, hormones, and behavior in synchronous and intrusive mothers.

Atzil Shir S Hendler Talma T Feldman Ruth R

Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology 20110831 13

The mother-infant bond provides the foundation for the infant's future mental health and adaptation and depends on the provision of species-typical maternal behaviors that are supported by neuroendocrine and motivation-affective neural systems. Animal research has demonstrated that natural variations in patterns of maternal care chart discrete profiles of maternal brain-behavior relationships that uniquely shape the infant's lifetime capacities for stress regulation and social affiliation. Such ...[more]

PMID: 21881566

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Project description:Background: Synchronous colorectal cancer (SCRC) is not widely studied, and one of its most striking aspects the possible clonal origin of at least a part of the cases. Materials and methods: We studied 104 paired-SCRCs of 52 consecutive patients without hereditary forms of CRC. We used a Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism array to characterize the genomic profiles, and subsequently used a statistical application to define them according to clonality within the same individual; the results were confirmed by next generation sequencing of the main CRC-related genes. We categorized the ensuing groups according to colon location, trying to find differential phenotypes with clinical implications. Results: The SCRC Monoclonal group (M) (19 cases) was divided into Monosegmental (MM) and Pancolonic (MP) groups. The MM subgroup consisted of 10 cases (19% of the total), while the MP group contained 9 cases (17%). The SCRC Polyclonal group (P) (33 cases) was also divided into Monosegmental (PM) and Pancolonic (PP) groups: 19 cases were PM (37%), showing preference for location in the left colon (17 cases, 89%), whereas 14 cases were PP (27%). Correlations with clinical features were mainly related to prognosis and familial cancer history. The MM group showed a high rate of mucinous tumors (37.5%), had the lowest mean number of tumors and associated polyps, and the worst prognosis. The MP group included the youngest age at diagnosis and the largest mean-number of associated polyps, had comparatively intermediate mean number of tumors, and showed the best prognosis and a familial cancer component. The PM group seemed to be a “frontier” group. Finally, the PP group also exhibited a mucin component, with the highest mean-number of tumors (4.6) compared with the mean-number of polyps (7.7), had a poor prognosis and consisted of sporadic cases. Conclusions: The statistical application we employed seems to define clonality more accurately in SCRC, and this, together with the tumor locations, helped us to configure a classification with prognostic and clinical value. These categories may serve as a starting point to analyze more selectively the molecular basis of SCRC and its relationship with environmental factors.

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Specifying the neurobiological basis of human attachment: brain, hormones, and behavior in synchronous and intrusive mothers.

Publications

Specifying the neurobiological basis of human attachment: brain, hormones, and behavior in synchronous and intrusive mothers.

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