Abraham et al. Father's brain is sensitive to childcare experiences Flashcards
Describe 3 groups of participants in Abraham (2014) study
1) Heterosexual primary-caregiving mothers (PC-mothers)
2) Heterosexual secondary-caregiving fathers (SC-fathers)
- heterosexual mother-father couples comprising of PC-mothers
3) Homosexual primary-caregiving fathers (PC-fathers)
- homosexual couples comprising of two PC-fathers
Parental caregiving behaviors were measured using video recordings of parents caring for their own infants. Describe the characteristics of the infants, ie; their ages etc.
- Infants were all born at term and healthy since birth
- Mean age was 11 +/- 6.67 months
- Video-taping of the interactions between the parents and the infant only happened when the infants were shown to be calm.
Describe the stimuli used to activate the parental caregiving network during scanning. What control stimuli were used?
- While lying in the scanner, participants were instructed to watch a series of attachment-related videos presented on a screen (videotapped within the home environment - natural interactions - for ecological validity)
There were 3 clips presented:
1) each parent interacting with his/her own infant (self-infant interaction; experimental stimuli)
2) a standard video clip of an unfamiliar parent (same sex participant) interacting with his/her own infant (unfamiliar parent-infant interaction)
3) Parent alone (self; control) in a solitary action (eg: dishwashing)
How was OT measured?
OT was measured through saliva samples through sallivette which were collected twice (once at baseline and following the parent-infant interaction)
How was the degree of parent-infant synchrony measured?
Parent-infant synchrony was measured via Coding Interactive Behavior (CIB)-coding
How was the degree of parental caregiving measured?
The degree of parental caregiving was measured through a structured interview (30 Qs - based on The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort Father’s Questionnaire and the Father’s Daily Routine Questionnaire) and a self-report questionnaire
What were 5 hypothesis that linked brain activity, parental caregiving and oxytocin?
1) activation in both subcortical areas involved in vigilance and reward and cortical circuits implicated in social understanding in all parents raising a young infant. // activation in both caregiving networks
2) they expected greater subcortical activity in mothers, particularly the amygdala, which has been repeatedly linked with mammalian mothering, and greater activation in cortical socio-cognitive circuits in fathers. // greater subcortical activation in mothers
3) the brain-hormone-behavior contellation underpinning maternal care was expected to center around the emotional processing-network, whereas the brain-hormone-behavior links in fathers were expected to coalesce with the socio-cognitive network // maternal care centers around emotional processing, parental care around social cognition
4) Greater variability in father’s brain response as mediated by actual caregiving experiences (PC-fathers) // greater variability in father’s brain
5) Pathways leading from the parents primary caregiving role to greater parent-infant synchrony would be mediated by parental brain activation and OT levels.
Compare the degree of parent-infant synchrony seen in PC-mothers, SC-fathers and PC-fathers.
PC-mothers and PC-fathes showed greater synchrony than SC-fathers
Parental caregiving network.
Name the two components of the network and list the brain areas included in each
1) Emotional Processing Network
- bilateral amygdala, ventral anterior cingulate cortex (vaCC), left inferior gyrus (IFG) and VTA
2) Mentalizing Network
- bilateral superior temporal sulcus (STS), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), temporal poles, and lateral frontopolar cortex
What parental functions were attributed to each component of the network
The results of the ROI fMRI analysis suggested a “division of labor” between PC and mothers and SC fathers (the more common family structure) with greater activation in the _______ component in PC mothers and greater activation of the __________ component in SC fathers
The results of the ROI fMRI analysis suggested a “division of labor” between PC mothers and SC fathers (the more common family structure) with greater activation of the AMYGDALA component in PC mothers and greater activation of the STS (SUPERIOR TEMPORAL SULCUS) component in SC fathers.
Group differences were seen for two areas across the 3 groups; the amygdala and the STS. Compare the brain activation in the amygdala and STS in PC mothers, SC fathers and PC fathers
Amygdala
- PC mothers and PC fathers had greater activation in the amygdala than SC fathers
STS
- PC fathers and SC fathers showed greater activation in the STS than PC mothers
measure of the temporal synchrony of the flucuations in the BOLD signal between two brain areas. it’s based on pearson correlations between levels of activation in the two regions over specified time bins
Functional connectivity
One of the three groups of parents showed statistical functional connectivity between the amygdala and STS. Which groups showed this coordinated activity and what is the author’s interpretations of this result?
PC-fathers show functional connectivity between the amygdala and STS
Time spent alone with the child, in direct responsiblity for infant care, correlated with amygdala-STS connectivity during self-infant interaction indicating the overlap of the two networks
Which group of parents showed correlation between parent-infant synchrony scores and amygdala actication
PC mothers
