Poster #138 - Intranasal Oxytocin Enhances Father’s Brain Response to Infant Smile

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Parents lay the foundation for their children’s social experiences by sensitively responding to their needs. The hormonal and neurobiological changes that occur during transition to parenthood importantly contribute to parents’ caregiving behavior towards their young. Much research has emphasized the relationship between the primary caregiver—the mother—and her infant, with less focus on the role of fathers in child development. However, recent accounts have suggested that fathers also play a significant role in promoting health, development, and psychosocial wellbeing of their children (Panter-Brick et al., 2014; Allgood, Beckert, & Peterson, 2015). The first 6 months of fatherhood are characterized by elevated plasma oxytocin levels and increases in gray matter volumes of brain regions that are associated with parental motivation and caregiving (Swain et al., 2014). Despite burgeoning interest in neuro-hormonal reorganization during fatherhood, the role of oxytocin in father-infant attachment remains unclear. Thus, the current randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover study of intranasal oxytocin (OT) examined paternal brain responses to own and unknown infant cues in first-time fathers. Five fathers of 5 to 7-month-old infants underwent functional MRI (fMRI) scanning while viewing happy and sad-face images of their own infant, along with those of a matched unknown infant. Fathers were given a nasal spray of either OT or placebo prior to one of two fMRI scanning sessions. Effects of intranasal OT were examined in region-of-interest analysis of the striatum, with this region implicated in reward processing and parental motivation. Intranasal OT, compared to placebo, significantly increased activation of the dorsal striatum when fathers viewed their own versus unknown infant’s faces (p<0.005). This finding was driven by OT-induced increased striatal activation to happy, but not sad, faces of own infants, consistent with OT’s role in enhancing social reward-related processing. Taken together, our findings suggest that intranasal OT may enhance activation in brain regions associated with reward processing and parental motivation in first-time fathers. Although preliminary, our results highlight the interplay of hormones, neurobiology and infant cues in the transition to fatherhood. These findings need replication in a larger cohort of fathers but may point to the possible role of intranasal OT in promoting father-infant attachment.

Authors

• Purva Rajhans, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
  Presenting Author

• Robin P Goin-Kochel, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lane Strathearn, University of Iowa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sohye Kim, Baylor College of Medicine
  Non-Presenting Author