Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T03:52:38.422Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Deep mechanisms of social affect – Plastic parental brain mechanisms for sensitivity versus contempt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2017

James E. Swain  and
S. Shaun Ho
James E. Swain
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University Medical Center, Stony Brook, NY [email protected]@stonybrookmedicine.eduhttps://www.stonybrookmedicine.edu/profile?pid=2038&name=James%20Swain%20MDhttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shao-Hsuan_Ho Department of Psychiatry, Psychology and Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48105 Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520
S. Shaun Ho
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University Medical Center, Stony Brook, NY [email protected]@stonybrookmedicine.eduhttps://www.stonybrookmedicine.edu/profile?pid=2038&name=James%20Swain%20MDhttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shao-Hsuan_Ho
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Insensitive parental thoughts and affect, similar to contempt, may be mapped onto a network of basic emotions moderated by attitudinal representations of social-relational value. Brain mechanisms that reflect emotional valence of baby signals among parents vary according to individual differences and show plasticity over time. Furthermore, mental health problems and treatments for parents may affect these brain systems toward or away from contempt, respectively.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e249
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainsworth, M. D. & Bell, S. M. (1970) Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illustrated by the behavior of one-year-olds in a strange situation. Child Development 41(1):49–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atzil, S., Hendler, T. & Feldman, R. (2011) Specifying the neurobiological basis of human attachment: Brain, hormones, and behavior in synchronous and intrusive mothers. Neuropsychopharmacology 36(13):2603–15. doi: 10.1038/npp.2011.172.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Atzil, S., Hendler, T. & Feldman, R. (2014) The brain basis of social synchrony. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 9(8):1193–202. doi: 10.1093/scan/nst105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Atzil, S., Hendler, T., Zagoory-Sharon, O., Winetraub, Y. & Feldman, R. (2012) Synchrony and specificity in the maternal and the paternal brain: Relations to oxytocin and vasopressin. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 51(8):798–811. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2012.06.008.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barrett, J., Wonch, K. E., Gonzalez, A., Ali, N., Steiner, M., Hall, G. B. & Fleming, A. S. (2012) Maternal affect and quality of parenting experiences are related to amygdala response to infant faces. Social Neuroscience 7(3):252–68. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2011.609907.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowlby, J. (1958) The nature of the child's tie to his mother. International Journal of Psycho-analysis 39(5):350–73.Google ScholarPubMed
Brown, S. L. & Brown, R. M. (2015) Connecting prosocial behavior to improved physical health: Contributions from the neurobiology of parenting. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 55:1–17. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.04.004.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buckner, R. L., Andrews-Hanna, J. R. & Schacter, D. L. (2008) The brain's default network: Anatomy, function, and relevance to disease. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1124:1–38. doi: 10.1196/annals.1440.011.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davis, K. L. & Panksepp, J. (2011) The brain's emotional foundations of human personality and the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 35(9):1946–58. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.04.004.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elmadih, A., Wan, M. W., Downey, D., Elliott, R., Swain, J. E. & Abel, K. M. (2016) Natural variation in maternal sensitivity is reflected in maternal brain responses to infant stimuli. Behavioral Neuroscience 130(5):500–10. doi: 10.1037/bne0000161.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feldman, R., Granat, A., Pariente, C., Kanety, H., Kuint, J. & Gilboa-Schechtman, E. (2009) Maternal depression and anxiety across the postpartum year and infant social engagement, fear regulation, and stress reactivity. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 4 8(9):919–27. doi: 10.1097/CHI.0b013e3181b21651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hipwell, A. E., Guo, C., Phillips, M. L., Swain, J. E. & Moses-Kolko, E. L. (2015) Right frontoinsular cortex and subcortical activity to infant cry is associated with maternal mental state talk. Journal of Neuroscience 35(37):12725–32. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1286-15.2015.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ho, S. S., Konrath, S., Brown, S. & Swain, J. E. (2014) Empathy and stress related neural responses in maternal decision making. Frontiers in Neuroscience 8: article 152. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2014.00152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, P., Capistrano, C. & Congleton, C. (2016a) Socioeconomic disadvantages and neural sensitivity to infant cry: Role of maternal distress. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 11(10):1597–607. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsw063.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, P., Feldman, R., Mayes, L. C., Eicher, V., Thompson, N., Leckman, J. F. & Swain, J. E. (2011) Breastfeeding, brain activation to own infant cry, and maternal sensitivity. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 52(8):907–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, P., Ho, S. S., Evans, G. W., Liberzon, I. & Swain, J. E. (2015a) Childhood social inequalities influences neural processes in young adult caregiving. Developmental Psychobiology 57(8):948–60. doi: 10.1002/dev.21325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, P., Leckman, J. F., Mayes, L. C., Feldman, R., Wang, X. & Swain, J. E. (2010a) The plasticity of human maternal brain: Longitudinal changes in brain anatomy during the early postpartum period. Behavioral Neuroscience 124(5):695–700.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, P., Leckman, J. F., Mayes, L. C., Newman, M. A., Feldman, R. & Swain, J. E. (2010b) Perceived quality of maternal care in childhood and structure and function of mothers' brain. Developmental Science 13(4):662–73. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00923.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, P., Mayes, L., Feldman, R., Leckman, J. F. & Swain, J. E. (2013) Early postpartum parental preoccupation and positive parenting thoughts: Relationship with parent-infant interaction. Infant Mental Health Journal 34(2):104–16. doi: 10.1002/Imhj.21359.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, P., Rigo, P., Leckman, J. F., Mayes, L. C., Cole, P. M., Feldman, R. & Swain, J. E. (2015b) 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. Frontiers in Psychology 6: article 1772. (Online journal). doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01772.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, P., Rigo, P., Mayes, L. C., Feldman, R., Leckman, J. F. & Swain, J. E. (2014) Neural plasticity in fathers of human infants. Social Neuroscience 9(5):522–35. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2014.933713.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, P., Strathearn, L. & Swain, J. E. (2016b) The maternal brain and its plasticity in humans. Hormones and Behavior 77:113–23. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2015.08.001.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laurent, H. K. & Ablow, J. C. (2012) A cry in the dark: Depressed mothers show reduced neural activation to their own infant's cry. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 7(2):125–34. doi: nsq091 [pii] 10.1093/scan/nsq091.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leckman, J. F., Feldman, R., Swain, J. E., Eicher, V., Thompson, N. & Mayes, L. C. (2004) Primary parental preoccupation: Circuits, genes, and the crucial role of the environment. Journal of Neural Transmission 111(7):753–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mayes, L. C., Swain, J. E. & Leckman, J. F. (2005) Parental attachment systems: Neural circuits, genes, and experiential contributions to parental engagement. Clinical Neuroscience Research 4(5–6):301–13. doi: 10.1016/j.cnr.2005.03.009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moses-Kolko, E. L., Horner, M. S., Phillips, M. L., Hipwell, A. E. & Swain, J. E. (2014) In search of neural endophenotypes of postpartum psychopathology and disrupted maternal caregiving. Journal of Neuroendocrinology 26(10):665–84. doi: 10.1111/jne.12183.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muzik, M., Rosenblum, K. L., Alfafara, E. A., Schuster, M. M., Miller, N. M., Waddell, R. M. & Kohler, E. S. (2015) Mom Power: Preliminary outcomes of a group intervention to improve mental health and parenting among high-risk mothers. Archives of Women's Mental Health 18(3):507–21. doi: 10.1007/s00737-014-0490-z.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Preston, S. D. (2013) The origins of altruism in offspring care. Psychological Bulletin 139(6):1305–41. doi: 10.1037/a0031755.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seeley, W. W., Menon, V., Schatzberg, A. F., Keller, J., Glover, G. H., Kenna, H., Reiss, A. L. & Greicius, M. D. (2007) Dissociable intrinsic connectivity networks for salience processing and executive control. The Journal of Neuroscience 27(9):2349–56. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5587-06.2007.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sripada, C., Angstadt, M., Kessler, D., Phan, K. L., Liberzon, I., Evans, G. W., Welsh, R. C., Kim, P. & Swain, J. E. (2014) Volitional regulation of emotions produces distributed alterations in connectivity between visual, attention control, and default networks. Neuroimage 89:110–21. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.11.006.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swain, J. E. (2008) Baby stimuli and the parent brain: Functional neuroimaging of the neural substrates of parent-infant attachment. Psychiatry (Edgmont) 5(8):28–36.Google ScholarPubMed
Swain, J. E. (2011) The human parental brain: In vivo neuroimaging. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry 35(5):1242–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swain, J. E., Dayton, C. J., Kim, P., Tolman, R. M. & Volling, B. L. (2014a) Progress on the paternal brain: Theory, animal models, human brain research, and mental health implications. Infant Mental Health Journal 35(5):394–408. doi: 10.1002/imhj.21471.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swain, J. E. & Ho, S. S. (2017) Neuroendocrine mechanisms for parental sensitivity: Overview, recent advances and future directions. Current Opinion in Psychology 15(1):105–10. 10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.02.027.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swain, J. E., Ho, S. S., Rosenblum, K. L., Morelen, D., Dayton, C. J. & Muzik, M. (2017) Parent–child intervention decreases stress and increases maternal brain responses and connectivity in response to own baby-cry: An exploratory study. Development and Psychopathology 29(2):535–53. doi: 10.1017/80954579417000165.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swain, J. E., Kim, P., Spicer, J., Ho, S. S., Dayton, C. J., Elmadih, A. & Abel, K. M. (2014b) Approaching the biology of human parental attachment: Brain imaging, oxytocin and coordinated assessments of mothers and fathers. Brain Research 1580:78–101. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2014.03.007.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swain, J. E., Konrath, S., Brown, S. L., Finegood, E. D., Akce, L. B., Dayton, C. J. & Ho, S. S. (2012) Parenting and beyond: Common neurocircuits underlying parental and altruistic caregiving. Parenting, Science and Practice 12(2–3):115–23. doi: 10.1080/15295192.2012.680409.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swain, J. E. & Lorberbaum, J. P. (2008) Imaging the human parental brain. In: Neurobiology of the Parental Brain, ed. Bridges, R. S., Ch. 6, pp. 83–100. Academic Press. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-374285-8.00006-8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swain, J. E., Mayes, L. C. & Leckman, J. F. (2004) The development of parent–infant attachment through dynamic and interactive signaling loops of care and cry. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27(4):472–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swain, J. E., Tasgin, E., Mayes, L. C., Feldman, R., Constable, R. T. & Leckman, J. F. (2008) Maternal brain response to own baby-cry is affected by cesarean section delivery. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 49(10):1042–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wonch, K. E., de Medeiros, C. B., Barrett, J. A., Dudin, A., Cunningham, W. A., Hall, G. B., Steiner, M. & Fleming, A. S. (2016) Postpartum depression and brain response to infants: Differential amygdala response and connectivity. Social Neuroscience 11(6):800–17. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2015.1131193.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed