Cited by 168Infant Health and DevelopmentNeuroscience and Music PerceptionNeuroendocrine regulation and behavior

Neurobiology of culturally common maternal responses to infant cry

Open access
Bornstein, Marc H., Putnick, Diane L., Rigo, Paola, Esposito, Gianluca, Swain, James E., Suwalsky, Joan T. D., Su, Xueyun, Du, Xiaoxia +4 more·2017·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Abstract

Significance: We undertook an interdisciplinary exploration that unites evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and developmental cultural psychology. Based on extensive and detailed behavioral analyses of 684 new mothers in 11 countries and complementary functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analyses of brain responses in 43 first-time new US mothers to their own infants’ cries, 44 experienced Chinese mothers to infant cries and control emotional sounds, and 12 Italian mothers and nonmothers to generic infant cries, we identified specific behavior repertoires and specific corresponding activated brain regions in human caregivers that constitute primary responses to infant distress. This study set will appeal to scientific and general audiences because it elucidates the foundations of core parenting practices in response to infant vocal distress.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.1712022114

Cites

183 of 183 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • New mothers undergo dramatic endocrinological and physiological changes supporting the establishment and maintenance of maternal caregiving, including changes throughout the central nervous system.

    “New mothers themselves undergo dramatic endocrinological and physiological changes supporting the establishment and maintenance of maternal caregiving, including changes throughout the central nervous system”

    From Neuromodulation of maternal circuits by oxytocin (2019) · cites this paper as Bornstein et al., 2017

  • Studies from human mothers show that reactivity to infant auditory cues builds over time.

    “Studies from human mothers show that reactivity to infant auditory cues builds over time.”

    From Neuromodulation of maternal circuits by oxytocin (2019) · cites this paper as Bornstein et al., 2017

  • In humans, most nursing mothers respond to baby cries with increased hypothalamic activity, rises in plasma oxytocin, comforting behaviours and occasional milk ejection.

    “In humans, baby cries are a powerful signal of infant distress, and most nursing mothers respond to cries with increased hypothalamic activity, rises in the levels of plasma oxytocin, comforting behaviours towards the infant and occasional milk ejection7,8.”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Cunningham F, et al. (2010) Williams Obstetrics (McGraw-Hill, New York), 23rd Ed.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Bornstein, M. H., Putnick, D. L., Rigo, P., Esposito, G., Swain, J. E., Suwalsky, J. T. D., Su, X., Du, X., Zhang, K., Cote, L. R., De Pisapia, N., & Venuti, P.
Affiliations
  • Princeton University (US)
  • Nanyang Technological University (SG)
  • Stony Brook University Hospital (US)
  • East China Normal University (CN)
  • Marymount University (US)
  • Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, I-38068 Trento, Italy;
  • University of Trento (IT)
Corresponding author
Bornstein, Marc H.
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2017-10-23
Volume
114
Issue
45
Pages
E9465-E9473
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
OpenAlex
W2765873049
Cited by
168
References
183
Citations by year
2026: 16 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 50 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 11 · 2016: 1
FWCI
46.66
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Institutional Research Information System (Università degli Studi di Trento) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Padua Research Archive (University of Padova) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • DR-NTU (Nanyang Technological University) (submittedVersion)
  • Institutional Research Information System (Università degli Studi di Trento) (submittedVersion)
Funders
HHS | NIH | Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (intramural program)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Pharmacy › Infant Health and Development
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
Keywords
infant crying, maternal responses, caregiving, primiparous women, auditory processing, supplementary motor area, inferior frontal cortex, superior temporal cortex, striatum, cross-cultural comparison, evolutionary biology
MeSH terms
Adult, Brain, Crying, Emotions, Female, Humans, Infant, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Maternal Behavior, Mother-Child Relations, Mothers, Neurobiology, Young Adult

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review