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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.05.31.125955

Mother Brain is Wired for Social Moments

Shimon-Raz, O.·Salomon, R.·Bloch, M.·Aisenberg Romano, G.·Hendler, T.·Yeshurun, Y.·Ulmer Yaniv, A.·Zagoory-Sharon, O.·Feldman, R.
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Abstract

Reorganization of the maternal brain, primed by oxytocin surge during childbirth, triggers the species-typical maternal social behavior. These brief social moments carry profound effects on the infants social brain and likely have a distinct signature in the maternal brain. Utilizing a double-blind, oxytocin/placebo administration crossover design, we imaged mothers twice while observing three naturalistic maternal-infant contexts in the home ecology; "unavailable", "unresponsive", and "social", when mothers engaged in synchronous pick-a-boo play. We found four processes by which mothers brain registers social moments. Salience - social moments increased activations throughout the maternal brain network; Brain-behavior coupling - caregiving behavior linked with socially-driven neural response; Oxytocin sensitivity - administration impacted neural response mainly to the social context; and Temporal engrams-consistent temporal patterns in insula and TP characterized response to social play. Findings describe how mothers brain compiles and amplifies these precious social moments to generate dyad-specific brain-behavior patterns that initiate the cross-generational transmission of human sociality.

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Shimon-Raz, O., Salomon, R., Bloch, M., Aisenberg Romano, G., Hendler, T., Yeshurun, Y., Ulmer Yaniv, A., Zagoory-Sharon, O., Feldman, R.. 2020-06-01. Mother Brain is Wired for Social Moments. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.31.125955

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