“养育脑”网络及其影响因素

“Parental brain” network and its influential factors

“养育脑”(parental brain)是成人响应婴儿刺激(面孔、声音等)时,大脑中与养育行为密切相关的一系列神经回路的总称,主要涉及动机-奖赏、共情、情绪调节和执行功能等网络,眶额皮层、前扣带皮层、前脑岛、杏仁核和辅助运动区等核心脑区。而成人养育经验、催产素和精神障碍特征等因素都会影响“养育脑”网络,具体表现为育儿经验的增长以及催产素水平的提高促进了成人对婴儿刺激的加工,而精神障碍则损害了其对婴儿刺激的加工。未来研究可考察追踪“养育脑”在不同时期大脑结构的变化以及多脑间的协调同步。另外,还需进一步探究父亲异常“养育脑”的神经基础,重视异常父母的预防和干预以及加强本土化研究。

The human parental brain could be defined as is the network of regions that support caregiving behaviors to identify and react to infant related stimuli(infant vocals and facial expressions).First,we reviewed the neural circuits that were demonstrated to be involved in establishing and maintaining parent-infant relationships,which included circuits for motivation-reward,empathy,emotion regulation and executive function.And the important brain areas incorporate the orbitofrontal cortex,anterior cingulate cortex,anterior insula,amygdala,and supplementary motor area.Second,the current review summed that human parental brain is sensitive to multiple parenting determinants,including parenting abilities,parental hormones and psychopathology.The growth of parenting abilities and the improvement of oxytocin levels are beneficial to the processing for infant stimuli.Finally,several advices were proposed for future directions:1)prospective and longitudinal studies across important transition periods for parenting;2)describing the neural basis of male psychopathologies and exploring targeted interventions and treatments;3)employing some advanced neuroscience technique(e.g.,hyper scanning)to highlight the simultaneous neural activity between mother and father or parents and infants;and 4)conducting parental brain research in Chinese culture.