"Parent–Child Intervention Decreases Stress and Increases Maternal Brai" by James E. Swain, S. Shaun Ho et al.
 

Parent–Child Intervention Decreases Stress and Increases Maternal Brain Activity and Connectivity During Own Baby-Cry: An Exploratory Study

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2017

Description

Parental responses to their children are crucially influenced by stress. However, brain-based mechanistic understanding of the adverse effects of parenting stress and benefits of therapeutic interventions is lacking. We studied maternal brain responses to salient child signals as a function of Mom Power (MP), an attachment-based parenting intervention established to decrease maternal distress. Twenty-nine mothers underwent two functional magnetic resonance imaging brain scans during a baby-cry task designed to solicit maternal responses to child's or self's distress signals. Between scans, mothers were pseudorandomly assigned to either MP (n = 14) or control (n = 15) with groups balanced for depression. Compared to control, MP decreased parenting stress and increased child-focused responses in social brain areas highlighted by the precuneus and its functional connectivity with subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, which are key components of reflective self-awareness and decision-making neurocircuitry. Furthermore, over 13 weeks, reduction in parenting stress was related to increasing child- versus self-focused baby-cry responses in amygdala–temporal pole functional connectivity, which may mediate maternal ability to take her child's perspective. Although replication in larger samples is needed, the results of this first parental-brain intervention study demonstrate robust stress-related brain circuits for maternal care that can be modulated by psychotherapy.

Link to Full Text

Plum Print visual indicator of research metrics
PlumX Metrics
  • Citations
    • Citation Indexes: 64
  • Usage
    • Abstract Views: 7
  • Captures
    • Readers: 182
see details

Share

COinS