Citation

van 't Veer AE, Thijssen S, Witteman J, van Ijzendoorn MH, Bakermans-Kranenburg MJ. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 2019; 14(4): 447-457.

Affiliation

Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/scan/nsz018

PMID

30847472

Abstract

Perceiving potential threat to an infant and responding to it is crucial for offspring survival and parent-child bonding. Using a combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging and multi-informant reports, this longitudinal study explores the neural basis for paternal responses to threat to infants prenatally (N = 21) and early postnatally (n = 17). Participants viewed videos showing an infant in danger and matched control videos, while instructed to imagine that the infant was their own or someone else's. Effects were found for infant-threatening vs. neutral situations in the amygdala (region-of-interest analyses) and in clusters spanning cortical and subcortical areas (whole-brain analyses). An interaction effect revealed increased activation for own (vs. unknown) infants in threatening (vs. neutral) situations in bilateral motor areas, possibly indicating preparation for action. Postnatal activation patterns were similar, however, in part of the superior frontal gyrus the distinction between threat to own and unknown infant faded. Fathers showing more protective behavior in daily life recruited part of the frontal pole more when confronted with threat to their own versus an unknown infant. This exploratory study is the first to describe neural mechanisms involved in paternal protection and provides a basis for future work on fathers' protective parenting.

© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press.

Language: en

Keywords

Fathers; Paternal Protection; Protective Behavior Towards Infant; Threat Processing; fMRI