Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Transl Psychiatry. 2012 Nov 13;2(11):e182. doi: 10.1038/tp.2012.113.
Considerable animal and human research has been dedicated to the effects of parenting on structural brain development, focusing on hippocampal and prefrontal areas. Conversely, although functional imaging studies suggest that the neural reward circuitry is involved in parental affection, little is known about mothers' interpersonal qualities in relation to their children's brain structure and function. Moreover, gender differences concerning the effect of maternal qualities have rarely been investigated systematically. In 63 adolescents, we assessed structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging as well as interpersonal affiliation in their mothers. This allowed us to associate maternal affiliation with gray matter density and neural responses during different phases of the well-established Monetary Incentive Delay task. Maternal affiliation was positively associated with hippocampal and orbitofrontal gray matter density. Moreover, in the feedback of reward hit as compared with reward miss, an association with caudate activation was found. Although no significant gender effects were observed in these associations, during reward feedback as compared with baseline, maternal affiliation was significantly associated with ventral striatal and caudate activation only in females. Our findings demonstrate that maternal interpersonal affiliation is related to alterations in both the brain structure and reward-related activation in healthy adolescents. Importantly, the pattern is in line with typical findings in depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, suggesting that a lack of maternal affiliation might have a role in the genesis of mental disorders.
大量的动物和人类研究致力于探讨父母养育方式对大脑结构发育的影响，主要集中在海马体和前额叶区域。相反，尽管功能成像研究表明神经奖励回路与父母的情感有关，但对于母亲的人际特质与孩子的大脑结构和功能之间的关系知之甚少。此外，关于母亲特质影响的性别差异很少被系统地研究。在 63 名青少年中，我们评估了他们母亲的结构和功能磁共振成像以及人际联系。这使我们能够将母亲的联系与不同阶段的既定货币奖励延迟任务期间的灰质密度和神经反应相关联。母亲的联系与海马体和眶额回的灰质密度呈正相关。此外，与奖励错失相比，在奖励命中的反馈中，与尾状核的激活相关。尽管在这些关联中没有观察到显著的性别效应，但与基线相比，在奖励反馈期间，母亲的联系仅与女性的腹侧纹状体和尾状核的激活显著相关。我们的研究结果表明，母亲的人际联系与健康青少年的大脑结构和与奖励相关的激活变化有关。重要的是，这种模式与抑郁症和创伤后应激障碍的典型发现一致，这表明缺乏母性联系可能在精神障碍的发生中起作用。
