Synchronous caregiving from birth to adulthood tunes humans' social brain.

ABSTRACT: Mammalian young are born with immature brain and rely on the mother's body and caregiving behavior for maturation of neurobiological systems that sustain adult sociality. While research in animal models indicated the long-term effects of maternal contact and caregiving on the adult brain, little is known about the effects of maternal-newborn contact and parenting behavior on social brain functioning in human adults. We followed human neonates, including premature infants who initially lacked or received maternal-newborn skin-to-skin contact and full-term controls, from birth to adulthood, repeatedly observing mother-child social synchrony at key developmental nodes. We tested the brain basis of affect-specific empathy in young adulthood and utilized multivariate techniques to distinguish b

SUBMITTER: Ulmer Yaniv A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8040627 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature