Neurobiological and Behavioral Consequences of Cocaine Use in Mother/Infant Dyads

该计划项目是一个多学科的转化研究项目，采用动物和人类项目，重点是阐明神经生物学和行为特征以及在怀孕期间主要使用可卡因的母亲和产前暴露于可卡因的后代的反应，这可能对正常的母婴互动产生负面影响。虽然在人类和动物模型中，产妇使用可卡因与产妇忽视和母婴互动不良高度相关，但当出现相关婴儿线索（哭泣，触摸，图片）时，这些妇女的感知，内分泌和神经反应几乎没有直接研究。同样，很少有人知道异常的生理/行为反应的婴儿产前暴露于可卡因，可能会影响父母的行为都使用药物和非使用的母亲。一个动物和2个人类临床项目将解决 三个主要假设涉及母亲使用可卡因和（或）后代产前接触可卡因可能导致两者药物引起的神经和（或）生物行为异常的可能性，这些异常导致动物和人类的忽视和母婴互动不良。动物项目将评估婴儿刺激或行为的具体特征（发声，体温调节能力，嗅觉， 线索、对母亲存在的反应）和大脑结构异常（区域、心室差异）和基因表达，以及测量母亲对接触或不接触婴儿或婴儿产生的刺激的不同行为和内分泌反应和偏好。人类项目将侧重于对压力相关和婴儿相关刺激的感知、内分泌和行为反应，以及婴儿对母亲的反应，以及婴儿大脑结构和通路发育异常（项目2）和（项目3）对婴儿刺激（哭泣、视觉小插曲）的母亲（功能磁共振成像）内分泌和神经脑区域反应的测量。我们假设行为、生理和/或神经特征（婴儿哭声、婴儿刺激线索、护理的物理诱导和大脑 结构异常），这可能导致不同的母体反应。我们预测，滥用可卡因的母亲将表现出不同的知觉，行为，内分泌和/或神经系统的反应，相关的婴儿刺激相比，非吸毒者。这一跨学科的翻译项目将使来自不同研究背景和专业知识的研究人员能够共同努力，更好地确定母亲和婴儿的具体属性，这有助于更好地了解滥用药物的具体情况和个人的具体特征如何影响忽视。这可能导致早期和持续的干预战略，以抵消这一人群的一些负面影响。

This program project is a multidisciplinary, translational research project employing animal and human projects to focus on the elucidation of neurobiological and behavioral characteristics and responses of mothers that have used primarily cocaine during pregnancy and of offspring prenatally exposed to cocaine that might impact negatively on normal mother-infant interactions. Although maternal cocaine use is known to be highly correlated with maternal neglect and poorer mother-infant interactions in both human and animal models, there is little direct research on perceptual, endocrine and neurological responses of these women when presented with relevant infant cues (cries, touch, pictures). Similarly, little is known about abnormal physiological/behavioral responses in infants prenatally exposed to cocaine that may impact parenting behaviors of both drug using and non-using mothers. One animal, and 2 human clinical projects will address three main hypotheses which address the possibility that cocaine use by mothers and/or prenatal exposure to cocaine in offspring could result in drug-induced neurological and/or bio-behavioral abnormalities in both, that contribute to neglect and poor mother-infant interactions in animals and humans. The animal project will assess specific characteristics of infant stimuli or behavior (vocalizations, thermoregulatory ability, olfactory cues, response to mothers presence) and brain structural abnormalities (regional, ventricular differences) and gene expression as well as measuring differential maternal behavioral and endocrine responses to and preference for exposed compared to non-exposed infants or stimuli produced by infants. The human projects will focus on perceptual, endocrine and behavioral responses to stress related and infant related stimuli and infant response to mothers, as well as infant brain structural and pathway developmental abnormalities (project 2) and (project 3) measurement of maternal (fMRI) endocrine and neurological brain regional responses to infant stimuli (cries, visual vignettes). We hypothesize differences in behavioral, physiological and/or neurological characteristics (infant cries, infant stimulus cues, physical elicitation of care and brain structural abnormalities) of both human and rodent offspring (prenatally drug exposed versus non-exposed), which could result in differential maternal response. We predict that mothers who have abused cocaine will exhibit differences in perceptual, behavioral, endocrine and/or neurological responses to relevant infant stimuli compared to non-drug users. This translational, interdisciplinary project will allow researchers from different research backgrounds and expertise to work together to better identify specific attributes of mothers and infants that could contribute to a better understanding of how drugs of abuse specifically and particular characteristics of individuals in general may influence neglect. This could result in early and continuing intervention strategies to offset some of the negative consequences in this population.