Affiliative Behavior and Physiology Laboratory, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento , Rovereto, Italy ; Division of Psychology, Nanyang Technological University , Singapore, Singapore.
Division of Psychology, Nanyang Technological University , Singapore, Singapore.
Front Psychol. 2015 Apr 16;6:445. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00445. eCollection 2015.
Attachment theory postulates that mothers and their infants possess some basic physiological mechanisms that favor their dyadic interaction and bonding. Many studies have focused on the maternal physiological mechanisms that promote attachment (e.g., mothers' automatic responses to infant faces and/or cries), and relatively less have examined infant physiology. Thus, the physiological mechanisms regulating infant bonding behaviors remain largely undefined. This review elucidates some of the neurobiological mechanisms governing social bonding and cooperation in humans by focusing on maternal carrying and its beneficial effect on mother-infant interaction in mammalian species (e.g., in humans, big cats, and rodents). These studies show that infants have a specific calming response to maternal carrying. A human infant carried by his/her walking mother exhibits a rapid heart rate decrease, and immediately stops voluntary movement and crying compared to when he/she is held in a sitting position. Furthermore, strikingly similar responses were identified in mouse rodents, who exhibit immobility, diminished ultra-sonic vocalizations and heart rate. In general, the studies described in the current review demonstrate the calming effect of maternal carrying to be comprised of a complex set of behavioral and physiological components, each of which has a specific postnatal time window and is orchestrated in a well-matched manner with the maturation of the infants. Such reactions could have been evolutionarily adaptive in mammalian mother-infant interactions. The findings have implications for parenting practices in developmentally normal populations. In addition, we propose that infants' physiological response may be useful in clinical assessments as we discuss possible implications on early screening for child psychopathology (e.g., autism spectrum disorders and perinatal brain disorders).
依恋理论假设母亲和婴儿具有一些有利于他们相互作用和结合的基本生理机制。许多研究都集中在促进依恋的母亲的生理机制上（例如，母亲对婴儿面孔和/或哭声的自动反应），而相对较少研究检查婴儿的生理机制。因此，调节婴儿结合行为的生理机制在很大程度上仍未定义。本综述通过关注母婴携带及其对哺乳动物物种（例如人类、大型猫科动物和啮齿动物）中母婴互动的有益影响，阐明了一些调节社会结合和合作的神经生物学机制。这些研究表明，婴儿对母亲携带具有特定的镇静反应。与婴儿坐在母亲腿上相比，当婴儿被母亲行走时携带时，其心率会迅速下降，并且立即停止自主运动和哭泣。此外，在老鼠等啮齿动物中也发现了非常相似的反应，它们表现出不动、超声波发声减少和心率降低。总的来说，目前综述中描述的研究表明，母亲携带的镇静作用包括一系列复杂的行为和生理成分，每个成分都有特定的产后时间窗口，并与婴儿的成熟相协调。这种反应在哺乳动物母婴互动中可能是进化适应性的。这些发现对正常发育人群的育儿实践具有重要意义。此外，我们提出，婴儿的生理反应可能在临床评估中有用，因为我们讨论了早期筛查儿童精神病理学（例如自闭症谱系障碍和围产期脑障碍）的可能影响。
