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The neurobiology of parenting and infant-evoked aggression

Harris S Kaplan1, Patricia M Horvath1, Mohammed Mostafizur Rahman1

  • 1Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.

Physiological Reviews
|August 15, 2024
PubMed

Insights

Becoming a parent involves significant physiological and priority shifts, driven by hormones acting on brain circuits. This review explores the neurobiology of parenting, integrating new technologies to understand infant-directed behaviors.

Area of Science:

  • Neurobiology
  • Behavioral Science
  • Endocrinology

Background:

  • Parenting involves complex adult-infant and adult-adult interactions.
  • Transitioning to parenthood requires major physiological and priority reorganization.
  • Hormonal actions on specific cell types within brain circuits facilitate this transition.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To comprehensively review historical and current literature on the neurobiology of parenting.
  • To integrate findings across multiple species, focusing on rodents.
  • To highlight the impact of new molecular, circuit-based, and computational technologies.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review integrating historical and current research.
  • Focus on rodent models for detailed neurobiological investigation.
  • Analysis of emerging technologies in molecular, circuit, and computational neuroscience.

Main Results:

  • New technologies are filling knowledge gaps in infant-directed behavior.
  • Research is exploring the interplay of instinctive and learned parenting components.
  • Investigating the regulation of affiliative versus agonistic infant-directed behaviors.

Conclusions:

  • Emerging technologies offer novel insights into the neurobiology of parenting.
  • This review serves as a resource for researchers and an introduction for newcomers.
  • Future studies can be guided by identified research avenues and outstanding questions.

Keywords:
behaviorcell typescircuitshormonesparenting

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