OppNet Symposium Series

OppNet’s Inaugural Symposium Series: Human and Model Animal Research in the Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences - Maternal-Infant Bonding
Tuesday, December 07, 2010 2:00 PM-4:00 PM - Lipsett Amphitheater, Clinical Center, NIH Main Campus

Video Transcript | Download Flash Player

Moderator:
Yvonne Maddox, NICHD’s deputy director and OppNet Steering Committee member

Presenters:
Megan Gunnar (University of Minnesota) will begin with an overview of HPA reactivity, how early attachment relationships help infants (human /rat/monkey) regulate their psychobiological responses to stress until they have matured sufficiently to begin to self-regulate, and how early social experiences can influence these processes as they emerge (including adoption data).

Steve Suomi (Comparative Ethology Lab, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) will then discuss his rhesus monkey research, talking about how early differential early attachment experiences affect development at multiple levels of analysis --behavioral expression and emotional regulation (fear and aggression), neuroendocrine response (cortisol), neurotransmitter metabolism (serotonin), brain structure and function (MRI and PET data), and gene expression (genome-wide methylation patterns), demonstrating G x E interplay inolving specific candidate genes (e.g., 5-HTTlpr), and finishing with his infant imitation videos.

Jeanne Brooks-Gunn (Columbia University) will then complete the trio with a comprehensive presentation from the Fragile Families study, with its emphasis on prospective longitudinal sampling of well-defined populations at multiple sites, behavioral, biological, and genetic data collected multiple ways representing multiple levels of analysis, exciting initial findings regarding G x E interplay involving multiple candidate genes, and potential policy implications of these findings.

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This page last reviewed: January 28, 2011