Exploring the neural basis for paternal protection: An investigation of the neural response to infants in danger
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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 pre-natally (N = 21) and early post-natally (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. Post-natal 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 vs 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.
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Neural responses in bilateral motor areas were stronger when fathers-to-be imagined a threatened infant was their own rather than someone else's, but after birth the distinction faded.
“Neural responses in bilateral motor areas, possibly indicating preparation for action, were stronger when fathers‐to‐be imagined that the threatened infant was their own rather than someone else’s, but after the birth of their baby, the distinction between responses to one’s own and someone else’s infant faded (Van 't Veer et al., 2019).”
From Birth of a Father: Fathering in the First 1,000 Days (2019) · cites this paper as Van 't Veer et al., 2019
The Discussion reports stronger prenatal activation in bilateral motor areas when fathers-to-be imagined their own infant, rather than an unknown infant, in danger. It says postnatal results were similar and that the distinction faded only in one region of the superior frontal gyrus—not across the bilateral motor areas as the citing sentence implies. (LLM, conf=0.91)
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Birth of a Father: Fathering in the First 1,000 Days
Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., Lotz, A., Alyousefi-van Dijk, K., & van IJzendoorn, M. (2019) · Child Development Perspectives · doi:10.1111/cdep.12347 · Cited by 167 · see citing works
“…possibly indicating preparation for action, were stronger when fathers-to-be imagined that the threatened infant was their own rather than someone else’s, but after the birth of their baby, the distinction between responses to one’s own and someone else’s infant faded (Van ’t Veer et al., 2019).”
BackgroundSelf-citationFathers matter from the start: the role of expectant fathers in child development
Cardenas, S. I., Morris, A. R., Marshall, N., Aviv, E. C., Martínez García, M., Sellery, P., & Saxbe, D. E. (2022) · Child Development Perspectives · doi:10.1111/cdep.12436 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Alyousefi-van Dijk, K., van ‘t Veer, A. E., Meijer, W. M., Lotz, A. M., Rijlaarsdam, J., Witteman, J., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2019) · Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00105 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- van ‘t Veer, A. E., Thijssen, S., Witteman, J., van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J.
- Affiliations
- Methodology and Statistics Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
- Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL)
- Leiden University (NL)
- Department of Psychology, Education, and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Venue
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2019-03-07
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 447-457
- ISSN
- 1749-5016 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-5024
- PMC
- PMC6523437
- OpenAlex
- W2921268590
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 73
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 5.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- European Research Council (ERC AdG 669249)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Keywords
- amygdala, protective parenting, frontal pole, superior frontal gyrus, motor preparation, parent-child bonding, threat perception, fathers
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain, Fathers, Humans, Infant, Longitudinal Studies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Object Attachment, Paternal Behavior, Parenting, Young Adult
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