Bhandari Ritu, Bakermans-Kranenburg Marian J, van der Veen Rixt, Parsons Christine E, Young Katherine S, Grewen Karen M, Stein Alan, Kringelbach Morten L, van IJzendoorn Marinus H
Centre for Child and Family Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands.
University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Physiol Behav. 2014 May 28;131:123-8. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.04.028. Epub 2014 Apr 24.
Childhood emotional maltreatment has been associated with a higher risk for maltreating one's own offspring. In the current study, we explored a possible role of oxytocin in mediating the association between childhood emotional maltreatment and participants' interpretation of infant facial expressions. Oxytocin levels were measured in 102 female participants using saliva samples. They rated the mood of thirteen infants with happy, sad and neutral facial expressions. Emotional maltreatment indirectly influenced responses to happy infant faces by modulating oxytocin levels: higher self-reported emotional maltreatment was related to higher levels of salivary oxytocin which were in turn related to a more positive evaluation of happy infant expressions, but not to the evaluation of sad infant expressions. Oxytocin receptor polymorphism rs53576 did not moderate the relation between maltreatment experiences and salivary oxytocin levels. Early emotional maltreatment might indirectly affect emotional information processing by altering the oxytonergic system.
童年期情感虐待与虐待自己后代的较高风险有关。在当前的研究中，我们探讨了催产素在介导童年期情感虐待与参与者对婴儿面部表情的解读之间的关联中可能发挥的作用。我们使用唾液样本对102名女性参与者的催产素水平进行了测量。她们对13名面部表情为开心、悲伤和中性的婴儿的情绪进行了评分。情感虐待通过调节催产素水平间接影响对开心婴儿面部表情的反应：自我报告的情感虐待程度越高，唾液中催产素水平越高，而这又与对开心婴儿表情的更积极评价相关，但与对悲伤婴儿表情的评价无关。催产素受体基因多态性rs53576并未调节虐待经历与唾液催产素水平之间的关系。早期情感虐待可能通过改变催产素能系统间接影响情绪信息处理。
