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Kasaba R, Shimada K, Tomoda A. Neural Mechanisms of Parental Communicative Adjustments in Spoken Language. Neuroscience 2020; 457:206-217. [PMID: 33346117 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2020] [Revised: 12/01/2020] [Accepted: 12/04/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
During cultural transmission, caregivers typically adjust their form of speech according to the presumed characteristics of an infant/child, a phenomenon known as infant/child directed speech (IDS/CDS) or "parentese." Although ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) damage was previously found to be associated with failure in adjusting non-verbal communicative behaviors, little is known about the neural mechanisms of verbal communicative adjustments, such as IDS/CDS. In the current study, 30 healthy mothers with preschool-age children underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing a picture naming task which required them to name an object for either a child or an adult. In the picture naming task, mothers exhibited a longer naming duration in the toward-child condition than the toward-adult control condition. Naming an object for a child, compared with naming it for an adult, resulted in greater involvement in the vmPFC and other regions (e.g., cerebellum) in the global caregiving network. In particular, the vmPFC exhibited task-related deactivation and decreased functional connectivity with the supplementary motor, precentral, postcentral, and supramarginal regions. These findings suggest that the vmPFC, which is included in the default mode network, is involved in optimizing communicative behaviors for the inter-generational transmission of knowledge. This function of the vmPFC may be considered as a prosocial drive to lead to prosocial communicative behaviors depending on the context. This study provides a better understanding of the neural mechanisms involved in communicative adjustments for children and insight into related applied research fields such as parenting, pedagogy, and education.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryoko Kasaba
- Division of Developmental Higher Brain Functions, United Graduate School of Child Development, University of Fukui, 23-3 Matsuoka-Shimoaizuki, Eiheiji-cho, Yoshida-gun, Fukui 910-1193, Japan
| | - Koji Shimada
- Division of Developmental Higher Brain Functions, United Graduate School of Child Development, University of Fukui, 23-3 Matsuoka-Shimoaizuki, Eiheiji-cho, Yoshida-gun, Fukui 910-1193, Japan; Research Center for Child Mental Development, University of Fukui, 23-3 Matsuoka-Shimoaizuki, Eiheiji-cho, Yoshida-gun, Fukui 910-1193, Japan; Biomedical Imaging Research Center, University of Fukui, 23-3 Matsuoka-Shimoaizuki,Eiheiji-cho, Yoshida-gun, Fukui 910-1193, Japan.
| | - Akemi Tomoda
- Division of Developmental Higher Brain Functions, United Graduate School of Child Development, University of Fukui, 23-3 Matsuoka-Shimoaizuki, Eiheiji-cho, Yoshida-gun, Fukui 910-1193, Japan; Research Center for Child Mental Development, University of Fukui, 23-3 Matsuoka-Shimoaizuki, Eiheiji-cho, Yoshida-gun, Fukui 910-1193, Japan; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychological Medicine, University of Fukui Hospital, 23-3 Matsuoka-Shimoaizuki, Eiheiji-cho, Yoshida-gun, Fukui 910-1193, Japan.
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Abraham E, Hendler T, Zagoory-Sharon O, Feldman R. Network integrity of the parental brain in infancy supports the development of children's social competencies. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2016; 11:1707-1718. [PMID: 27369068 PMCID: PMC5091682 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsw090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2016] [Accepted: 06/20/2016] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The cross-generational transmission of mammalian sociality, initiated by the parent’s postpartum brain plasticity and species-typical behavior that buttress offspring’s socialization, has not been studied in humans. In this longitudinal study, we measured brain response of 45 primary-caregiving parents to their infant’s stimuli, observed parent–infant interactions, and assayed parental oxytocin (OT). Intra- and inter-network connectivity were computed in three main networks of the human parental brain: core limbic, embodied simulation and mentalizing. During preschool, two key child social competencies were observed: emotion regulation and socialization. Parent’s network integrity in infancy predicted preschoolers’ social outcomes, with subcortical and cortical network integrity foreshadowing simple evolutionary-based regulatory tactics vs complex self-regulatory strategies and advanced socialization. Parent–infant synchrony mediated the links between connectivity of the parent’s embodied simulation network and preschoolers' ability to use cognitive/executive emotion regulation strategies, highlighting the inherently dyadic nature of this network and its long-term effects on tuning young to social life. Parent’s inter-network core limbic-embodied simulation connectivity predicted children’s OT as moderated by parental OT. Findings challenge solipsistic neuroscience perspectives by demonstrating how the parent–offspring interface enables the brain of one human to profoundly impact long-term adaptation of another.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eyal Abraham
- Department of Psychology and the Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
| | - Talma Hendler
- Functional Brain Center, Wohl Institute of Advanced Imaging, Tel-Aviv SouraskyMedical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.,School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Orna Zagoory-Sharon
- Department of Psychology and the Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
| | - Ruth Feldman
- Department of Psychology and the Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel .,Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
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