An fMRI study of the neural basis of parental behavior based on physiological polymorphism

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26840160
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Applied anthropology
• Research Institution: Tokyo Metropolitan University
• Principal Investigator: MADOKA NORIUCHI 首都大学東京, 人間健康科学研究科, 客員研究員 (20571897)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: fMRI / 養育行動 / 脳機能 / 育児 / 親子 / 生理的多型性 / 適応能

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We investigated parental brain responses to two-year-old child’s feeding situation using fMRI. We also examined the activations of four regions associated with parenting motivation such as parental love including orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), periaqueductal gray, dorsal raphe nucleus, anterior insula cortex, and ventral pallidum.
We found that the OFC which plays a critical role in reward system and representing the value of a stimulus reward was significantly activated in mother’s brain, but not in father’s brain. Our findings suggest that well-balanced maternal brain mechanisms integrated by OFC provide effective adaptive responses in daily parenting.

Free Research Field

発達認知神経科学，生理人類学