We all know that parents tend to treat their children the way their parents treated them, but why? UQ PhD candidate and developmental paediatrician Dr Lane Strathearn may have found the answer in mothers’ brains.
Published online in Neuropsychopharmacology is a study which found mothers responded differently to their infant’s facial expressions, based on their own history of attachment.
“For mothers with ‘secure’ attachment, we found that both happy and sad infant faces produced a reward signal in their brain, or a ‘natural high’,” Dr Strathearn said.
“However, mothers with an ‘insecure’ attachment pattern didn’t show this same brain response.
“In fact, their own infant's crying face activated the insula, a brain region associated with feelings of unfairness, pain or disgust.
“Thus, a mother’s own experience in childhood may shape how she responds to her baby’s needs, through these changes in the brain.
“This may help us to better understand factors leading to child neglect.”
Conducted at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston, Texas, where Dr Strathearn is now based, the study involved asking 30 first-time mothers to look at their baby’s facial expressions while inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner.
Prior to giving birth, the mothers participated in the Adult Attachment Interview, which revealed their perception of childhood relationships with attachment figures, usually parents.
Of the 30 women included in the study, half were classified as having insecure/dismissing attachment and half demonstrated secure patterns of attachment.
Seven months after giving birth, mothers were also asked to give blood before, during and after interacting with their child.
“Secure mothers showed a greater release of the hormone oxytocin when they interacted with their infant,” Dr Strathearn said.
“This hormone is produced in the brain and released into the blood stream, and is important for childbirth, breastfeeding and maternal care.
“The mother's oxytocin response was significantly correlated with the brain activation seen in reward and oxytocin-related areas of the brain.”
The study, which forms chapter seven of Dr Strathearn’s PhD on maternal neglect, was conducted with colleagues Dr P. Read Montague, Dr Peter Fonagy and Dr Janet Amico.
Previous research conducted by Dr Strathearn and his colleagues found the reward centres of a mother’s brain lit up when she saw her own baby smiling. The study attempted to explain the special mother-infant bond, and how it may sometimes go wrong.
A UQ medical graduate (1992), Dr Strathearn is now Assistant Professor of Paediatrics at BCM and Texas Children's Hospital, and a Research Associate in BCM's Human Neuroimaging Laboratory.
Media: Dr Strathearn* (+1 281 725 7435 lstrathearn@hnl.bcm.edu), Glenna Picton* at BCM Public Affairs (+1 713 798 7973, +1 210 912 7946,picton@bcm.edu) or Penny Robinson at UQ Communications (+61 7 3365 9723, penny.robinson@uq.edu.au)
*Please not Texas time is 15 hours behind Brisbane
Images of Dr Strathearn at UQ's St Lucia Campus are available by contacting photo library coordinator Karen Poole (k.poole@uq.edu.au)
