1-034 - Neurobiological Mechanisms Underlying Parental Buffering of Offspring Stress and Fear: Integrating Human Studies and Animal Models

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Caregivers can reduce or completely block their offspring’s hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) stress response to otherwise stressful events. However, the neurobiological bases for stress buffering are poorly understood. This symposium adopts a translational, cross-species approach to integrate the available evidence from developmental studies in humans, rodents, and nonhuman primates in order to build a more comprehensive model of the behavioral, neural and endocrine underpinnings of this phenomenon, with a primary emphasis on changes in parental stress buffering across development and with adverse early-life experiences. Paper 1 reviews the development of parental stress buffering in humans, including evidence that parents lose their stress buffering potency in early adolescence and early deprived care advances the age at which the parent’s presence ceases to be effective. Paper 2 presents a series of behavioral and functional neuroimaging studies that characterize the development of the human amygdala-medial prefrontal cortex fear-regulating circuitry and how caregiver stimuli modulate its activity and development. Paper 3 reviews a series of experiments probing the neural mechanisms underlying maternal regulation of infant fear/stress physiology in rodents, including new, unpublished results on the influence of maternal stimuli on dopamine levels and dopamine-related gene expression in the amygdala. Paper 4 uses a primate model of naturally-occurring infant maltreatment by mothers to examine its effects on the development of prefrontal-amygdala circuits and the brain serotonin system in rhesus monkeys. Together, these data suggest significant changes in parental stress buffering across development that are markedly affected by early disruptions in the parent-offspring relationship.

Sub Unit

• Biological Processes

Chairs

• Megan R Gunnar, Univ of Minnesota

• Camelia E Hostinar, Northwestern University

Individual Presentations

• Developmental Changes in the Social Buffering of the HPA Axis by Caregivers in Humans - Presenting Author: Camelia E Hostinar, Northwestern University; Megan R Gunnar, Univ of Minnesota

• The Caregiver Stimulus and Development of Human Amygdala-mPFC Circuitry - Presenting Author: Nim Tottenham, Columbia Univ; Dylan G. Gee, Columbia University; Laurel J. Gabard-Durnam, Columbia University

• Infant Trauma and Maternal Control of the Infant Brain: Lessons from a Rodent Model - Presenting Author: Regina Marie Sullivan, New York University

• Early Maternal Care is Critical for the Development of Emotional Brain Circuits: A Nonhuman Primate Model - Presenting Author: Mar M. Sanchez, Emory University & Yerkes National Primate Center; Brittany R. Howell, Emory University & Yerkes National Primate Center