03-15-17 - Neuropsychology of Parenting

Presentation by Alison S. Fleming: "Neuropsychology of Parenting"

Alison S. Fleming, Ph.D., FRSC

Distinguished Professor of Psychology

Neuropsychology of Human Mothering and the Effects of Experience

Alison S. Fleming

University of Toronto

What makes a mother want to mother? In most mammalian species, the female is not normally maternal until she herself gives birth. In rodents, inexperienced non-mothers withdraw from pups or in some cases even cannibalize them. However, at the end of pregnancy and at birth the hormonal changes that occur result in a shift in the mother’s approach-withdrawal tendencies and the new mother will approach young and develop an attraction to them; she then shows the full repertoire of species-characteristic maternal behaviors. Among humans as well, mothering motivation tends to increase after birth and is affected by a shift in her appraisal of babies, an enhanced emotional sensitivity and ability and a change in a number of executive (cognitive) functions. The present talk will discuss the role of these psychological systems in the regulation of mothering and how hypothalamic, limbic, and cortical systems within the brain are involved. It will show, in addition, that there are variations in mothering behavior and that the mothering exhibited by the daughters when they have young often reflects the mothering they themselves received as infants. These developmental patterns are also associated with experience-based changes in the ‘maternal brain’.

The Science, Technology and Nature get-together,

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Links from Doug Wind's presentation, "Stress":

Robert Sapolsky: The Psychology of Stress - YouTube

Stress, Portrait of a Killer - Full Documentary (2008) - YouTube

News links:

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