Gianluca Esposito, PhDUniversity of Trento, ItalyNanyang Technological University, Singapore

GENERAL Research Goal

The elucidation of the Neural, Physiological and Behavioral Bases of the

Mother-Infant Interaction

Mother-Infant Interaction is Based on:

• Specific Physiological Mechanisms– Active in specific time-windows– Often reciprocate in Mother and Infant

– An example is the Nursing/Suckling Behavior

Mother-Infant Interaction is essential for Mammals

SPECIFIC Research Goal

INFANT Responses to MATERNAL Stimuli• Typical Development• Atypical Development

– Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)– Cerebral Palsy

MATERNAL Responses to INFANT Stimuli• Parenting Typically Developing Infants • Parenting in Clinical Conditions (i.e. Maternal

Depression)• Parenting Atypically Developing Infants (i.e. ASD,

Intellectual Disability)

Why?

Why?

Focus on BOTH Mother and Infant

Multi-Levels Approach - Neural, Physiological and

Behavioral- Cross-Cultural, Cross-Species- Typical vs Clinical Conditions

Neural

Physiological

Behavioral

Methods Outline

Enzymes/Hormones Body Temperature Heart Dynamics

Neuroimaging Electrophysiology Genetic Pharmacological

Active Current Collaborations

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An example of what we do

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A Textbook Example:Depression = Gene (5HTTLPR) * Environment

Interaction between parental bonding and genes polymorphisms modulates adult’s

physiological responses to distress stimuli

Research goalInvestigate how parental behavior and genetical factors interact in modulating

adults’ physiolgical activations in distressful situations.

Hypothesis• Better parental bonding associate with protective genetic factors leads to calmer resposes to negative stimuli

• Worse parental bonding associate with non-protective genetic factors leads to more distressful resposes to negative stimuli

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Procedure

Parental bonding assessment

N=44

Saliva sample collection

10 sec

15 sec

30 distressful audio clips

Methods

Physiological Measures

Sympathetic index Sympathetic and parasimpathetic index

Parental Bonding Instrument

Measure of parental CARE and OVERPROTECTION before 16 years of age

Behavioral Measure

OXTR (rs53576 and rs2254298) and HT (X5HTTLPR) polymorphisms

OXTR (rs5356)

OXTR (rs2254298)

5HTTLPR

See you on Wednesday, with three challenges …