Paternal Brain Responses to Infant Face Cues: Effects of Intranasal Oxytocin

父亲大脑对婴儿面部线索的反应：鼻内催产素的作用

• 批准号: 9043152
• 负责人: Robin P. Kochel
• 金额: $ 6.98万
• 依托单位: BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-04-01 至 2019-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9043152
• 关键词: Address; Affect; Affective; Amygdaloid structure; Behavior; Biological; Brain; Brain scan; Caring; Child; Child Development; Child Rearing; Cognitive; Corpus striatum structure; Cross-Over Studies; Cues; Data; Dopamine; Dorsal; Emotions; Employment; Enrollment; Ensure; Face; Facial Expression; Fathers; Female; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Funding; Grant; Health; Home environment; Homologous Gene; Hormones; Human; Individual; Infant; Infant Behavior; Inferior frontal gyrus; Intervention; Life; MRI Scans; Maternal Behavior; Measures; Medial; Midbrain structure; Mothers; Neurobiology; Neuropeptides; Neurosecretory Systems; Oxytocin; Parents; Paternal Behavior; Pathway interactions; Pattern; Placebo Control; Placebos; Play; Prefrontal Cortex; Procedures; Process; Prosencephalon; Randomized; Research; Rewards; Rodent; Role; Sensory; Sex Characteristics; Shapes; Social Behavior; Social Development; Specific qualifier value; Substantia nigra structure; Temporal Lobe; Time; United States; Vasopressins; Ventral Striatum; Ventral Tegmental Area; Videotape; affection; behavioral response; brain circuitry; caregiving; cognitive development; father role; indexing; interest; male; neglect; neurobehavioral; neuroimaging; paternal caregiving; primary caregiver; relating to nervous system; response; reward processing; sex; social

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In the United States today, one in three children live in homes without the presence of their biological father. In contrast, fathers are the primary caregivers for a small but increasing number of children, as more mothers return to full-time employment. Although there is substantial evidence for the importance and unique role of fathers in shaping child social and cognitive development, few studies have directly addressed the neural underpinnings of paternal caregiving or sex differences in parenting. Rodent and more recent human research has demonstrated the importance of the neuropeptide, oxytocin, in facilitating social and parenting behaviors. The aim of this R03 application is to examine sex differences in parental brain and behavioral responses to infant cues, by measuring the effect of intranasal oxytocin on 1) fathers' neural responses using functional MRI (fMRI), and 2) interactive behavior during a free play procedure. This will be compared with data from our currently funded R01 study: "Intranasal Oxytocin: A Neuropharmacological Intervention for Maternal Neglect?". Thirty first-time fathers will be enrolled, alongside their female partner and infant (from the concurrent R01 grant) in a randomized, placebo-controlled crossover study of intranasal oxytocin. FMRI brain responses to infant face cues will be measured, as well as videotaped behavioral responses of fathers during a free-play interaction procedure, the CARE-Index. It is hypothesized that fathers, compared with mothers, will show less activation of mesocorticolimbic dopamine reward circuits, including the amygdala, the ventral striatum (VS) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), when viewing their own vs. unknown infant faces during fMRI scanning. However, fathers will show greater activation of social-cognitive nigrostriatal dopamine circuits, including the dorsal striatum (DS) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Furthermore, it is hypothesized that intranasal oxytocin will diminish social-cognitive circuits in fathers, while enhancing affect-related brain circuitry. Finally, it is hypothesized that during the free play parent-infant interaction procedure (CARE-Index), fathers will score higher than mothers on cognitive measures (e.g. turn- taking contingencies and control) but lower on affective measures of parental sensitivity (e.g. facial and verbal expression, affection), with affective measures enhanced in fathers after intranasal oxytocin. Mothers will show a similar but less pronounced brain and behavioral response to oxytocin, reflected in a treatment x sex interaction effect. Regardless of sex, overall parental sensitivity (which incorporates both cognitive and affective measures) will be positively correlated with functional connectivity patterns between the amygdala, striatum and PFC. We anticipate that these results will help us to better understand how fathers respond to infant face cues, and elucidate sex differences in parental neuroendocrine functioning. This will provide preliminary data for an R01 application that will more fully examine paternal behavior, attachment and neuroimaging responses to intranasal oxytocin and its homologue, vasopressin.

 描述（由申请人提供）：在今天的美国，三分之一的孩子生活在没有亲生父亲在场的家庭中。相比之下，随着越来越多的母亲重返全职工作岗位，父亲是为数不多但越来越多的儿童的主要照顾者。虽然有大量的证据表明父亲在塑造儿童社会和认知发展方面的重要性和独特作用，但很少有研究直接涉及父亲养育子女或养育子女中性别差异的神经基础。啮齿动物和最近的人类研究已经证明了神经肽催产素在促进社会和养育行为方面的重要性。该R 03应用的目的是通过测量鼻内催产素对1）使用功能性MRI（fMRI）的父亲神经反应和2）自由玩耍过程中的互动行为的影响，来检查父母大脑和对婴儿线索的行为反应的性别差异。这将与我们目前资助的R 01研究的数据进行比较：“鼻内催产素：一种神经药理学干预母体神经麻痹？".将招募30名首次为人父的父亲，以及他们的女性伴侣和婴儿（来自同期R 01补助金）参加一项鼻内催产素的随机、安慰剂对照交叉研究。将测量FMRI大脑对婴儿面部线索的反应，以及父亲在自由游戏互动过程中的行为反应录像，即CARE指数。据推测，父亲，与母亲相比，将显示较少的激活中皮质边缘多巴胺奖励电路，包括杏仁核，腹侧纹状体（VS）和腹内侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC），当看到自己与未知的婴儿面孔在功能磁共振成像扫描。然而，父亲会表现出更大的社会认知黑质纹状体多巴胺回路的激活，包括背侧纹状体（DS）和背外侧前额叶 皮质（dlPFC）。此外，据推测，鼻内催产素会减少父亲的社会认知回路，同时增强与情感相关的大脑回路。最后，假设在自由玩耍的父母-婴儿互动程序（CARE-指数）期间，父亲在认知测量（例如，轮流应急和控制）上的得分将高于母亲，但在父母敏感性的情感测量（例如，面部和言语表达、情感）上的得分较低，其中父亲在鼻内催产素后的情感测量增强。母亲会表现出类似的，但不太明显的大脑和行为反应催产素，反映在治疗x性别的相互作用效果。无论性别如何，父母的整体敏感性（包括认知和情感措施）将与杏仁核，纹状体和PFC之间的功能连接模式呈正相关。我们预计，这些结果将有助于我们更好地了解父亲如何对婴儿的面部线索，并阐明父母神经内分泌功能的性别差异。这将为R 01应用程序提供初步数据，该应用程序将更全面地检查父亲的行为、依恋和对鼻内催产素及其同系物加压素的神经成像反应。