Sensitive periods in human social development: New insights from research on oxytocin, synchrony, and high-risk parenting
Sensitive periods in human social development: New insights from research on oxytocin, synchrony, and high-risk parenting
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DOI：
10.1017/s0954579415000048
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发表时间：
2015-05-01
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Feldman, Ruth
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Feldman, Ruth
行为发育的敏感期(SP)在20世纪头10年出现在生物科学中，从20世纪50年代开始的动物模型研究为SP效应提供了术语和证据。本文提出了一个严格的人类SP研究计划，认为人脑的复杂性和人类生态的多变性要求必须在人类中研究SP效应，采用从出生开始的纵向设计，基于操纵早期环境的动物研究来检验基于机制的假说，并将高风险条件用作自然实验。根据对关键期及其顺序级联反应的分子基础的研究，提出催产素(OT)系统是一个古老的整合系统，它与应激、奖赏、免疫和脑干介导的稳态系统相互作用，支持哺乳动物的社会性，它在依赖经验的可塑性中发挥着独特的作用，其原因是：(A)树突状释放方式导致早期经验启动的自我调节功能，(B)活动的脉动性模式，以及(C)在分子和网络组装水平上对神经可塑性的特殊作用。同步性是生物和行为在社会接触中的协调，被认为是SP对OT功能、社会性大脑和成人社会性发挥作用的一种机制。来自四个高危出生队列的发现，每个队列从出生到10年都被反复跟踪，为基于动物模型中特定程序的人类SP研究提供了独特的自然实验。这些问题包括早产(母亲接近)、多胎生育(同辈抚养)、产后抑郁(低舔和梳理)以及慢性不可预测的创伤(母亲轮换、不同的觅食需求)。在每个队列中，假设都是基于SP期间缺失的环境成分，关于社会同步性、OT功能、压力反应、情绪调节和心理健康的研究结果符合发展精神病理学的多层次和动态原理。关于早期剥夺后的修复潜力与慢性化的结果突出了基于人类SP研究的弹性的灵活概念。在分子、内分泌、脑和行为水平上考虑SP效应，并与人类社会功能的神经可塑性和多重性联系起来，可能有助于微调早期发现和构建有针对性的个体化干预。
Sensitive periods (SP) in behavioral development appeared in the biological sciences during the first decade of the 20th century, and research in animal models beginning in the 1950s provide terminology and evidence for SP effects. This paper proposes a rigorous program for human SP research and argues that the complexity of the human brain and variability of the human ecology necessitate that SP effects must be studied in humans, employ longitudinal designs starting at birth, test mechanism-based hypotheses based on animal studies that manipulate early environments, and utilize high-risk conditions as natural experiments. In light of research on the molecular basis of critical periods and their sequential cascades, it is proposed that the oxytocin (OT) system, an ancient and integrative system that cross-talks with the stress, reward, immune, and brain stem mediated homeostatic systems and supports mammalian sociality, plays a unique role in experience-dependent plasticity that buttresses SP effects due to its (a) dendritic mode of release leading to autoregulated functioning primed by early experience, (b) pulsatile pattern of activity, and (c) special role in neural plasticity at the molecular and network assembly levels. Synchrony, the coordination of biology and behavior during social contact, is suggested as a mechanism by which SP exert their effect on OT functionality, the social brain, and adult sociality. Findings from four high-risk birth cohorts, each followed repeatedly from birth to 10 years, provide unique natural experiments for human SP research based on specific programs in animal models. These include prematurity (maternal proximity), multiple birth (peer rearing), postpartum depression (low licking and grooming), and chronic unpredictable trauma (maternal rotation, variable foraging demands). In each cohort, hypotheses are based on the missing environmental component during SP, and findings on social synchrony, OT functionality, stress response, emotion regulation, and mental health accord with the multilevel and dynamic principles of developmental psychopathology. The results on the potential for reparation versus chronicity following early deprivation highlight a flexible conceptualization of resilience based on human SP research. Consideration of SP effects at the molecular, endocrine, brain, and behavioral levels and in relation to the neural plasticity and multifinality of human social functions may assist in fine-tuning early detection and the construction of targeted individualized interventions.