NIH R01 · 2025
ABSTRACT Human parents and non-parents show sharply distinct patterns of brain activity in response to infant cries or laughter. How is this change in brain responses accomplished? Receiving parental care is essential for appropriate physical, cognitive, and emotional development in infants. Failure to care for an infant predisposes the individual to neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. Caregiving behavior is mediated by neural circuits that promote bonding with infants. Past research has primarily focused on neural mechanisms in mothers associated with pregnancy, parturition, and lactation that facilitate parenting. However, many species show bi-parental care, suggesting that…
From the public funding record at NIH RePORTER. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.