Neurobiological bases of paternal nurturance

描述（由申请人提供）：在现代，像我们这样的西方社会，没有父亲的抚养与儿童的一系列负面发展结果有关，包括药物滥用，攻击性和行为障碍，辍学和青春期的危险性行为。然而，当父亲在场时，他们并不总是乐于助人，少数人甚至会辱骂。另一方面，由敏感、有教养的父亲抚养的孩子有更好的认知、行为、社会和心理结果。该项目将研究敏感父亲行为背后的神经生物学，并确定药物干预是否可以增强这种行为。第一个目的是研究父亲对婴儿图片和哭泣刺激的神经反应与父亲日常生活中实际行为之间的关系，这是通过电子激活记录仪（Electronic Activated Recorder，EAI）评估的。一种便携式数字录音机，定期记录环境声音的简短片段，并在参与者的自然生活流中对参与者的瞬时社会环境和互动进行不引人注目的声学观察。这一目标将使用以前收集的数据， 数据来自60名1-3岁儿童的父亲，以编码父亲行为的几种措施。父亲行为的测量将与先前从相同父亲那里收集的神经成像数据相关联。目的2将确定鼻内OT或AVP是否改变父亲对自己孩子的图片和哭泣刺激的神经反应。30名有1- 3岁孩子的父亲将在他们观看自己和未知孩子的照片以及听未知婴儿哭泣刺激时进行功能磁共振成像。父亲将在两个不同的场合进行扫描;一次是在OT（n=15）或AVP（n=15）的影响下，一次是在安慰剂的影响下。给药顺序将在受试者之间平衡。最终，人们希望像这样的干预措施将通过对高危父亲的麸皮生理和行为的影响来改善儿童的身心健康（例如，虐待父亲，患有产后抑郁症的父亲）。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In modern, western societies like ours, being raised without a father is associated with a host of negative developmental outcomes for children, including substance abuse, aggression and conduct disorder, dropping out of school and risky sexual behavior in adolescence. When fathers are present, however, they are not always helpful, and a small minority are even abusive. On the other hand, children raised by sensitive, nurturing fathers have better cognitive, behavioral, social and psychological outcomes. The proposed project will investigate the neurobiology underlying sensitive fathering and determine whether a pharmacological intervention can enhance it. The first aim is to investigate the relationship between fathers' neural responses to infant picture and cry stimuli and actual behavior of fathers in everyday life as assessed by the Electronic Activated Recorder (EAR), a portable digital audio recorder that periodically records brief snippets of ambient sounds and unobtrusively samples acoustic observations of participants' momentary social environments and interactions within the natural flow of their lives. This aim will use previously collected EAR data from 60 fathers of 1-3 year old children to code several measures of paternal behavior. Measures of paternal behavior will then be correlated with previously collected neuroimaging data from the same fathers. Aim 2 will determine if intranasal OT or AVP alter paternal neural responses to own child picture and cry stimuli. Thirty fathers with 1- 3 year old children will be imaged with fMRI as they view pictures of their own and unknown children and as they listen to unknown infant cry stimuli. Fathers will be scanned on two separate occasions; once under the influence of OT (n=15) or AVP (n=15), and once under the influence of a placebo. Order of administration will be counterbalanced across subjects. Ultimately, it is hoped that interventions like these will improve children's mental and physical health by virtue of their effects on the bran physiology and behavior of at-risk fathers (e.g., abusive fathers, fathers with post-partum depression).