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PSYCHOLOGY
Early experience in humans is associated with changes in neuropeptides critical for regulating social behavior
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*Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, 1202 West Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706-1696; Waisman Center for Human Development, University of Wisconsin, 1500 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53705; Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, 1220 Capitol Court, Madison, WI 53715; and Molecular and Environmental Toxicology Center, University of Wisconsin, 777 Highland Avenue, STE 2233, Madison, WI 53705-2222
Edited by William T. Greenough, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL and approved September 20, 2005 (received for review June 7, 2005)
The formation of social attachments is a critical component of human relationships. Infants begin to bond to their caregivers from the moment of birth, and these social bonds continue to provide regulatory emotional functions throughout adulthood. It is difficult to examine the interactions between social experience and the biological origins of these complex behaviors because children undergo both brain development and accumulate social experience at the same time. We had a rare opportunity to examine children who were reared in extremely aberrant social environments where they were deprived of the kind of care-giving typical for our species. The present experiment in nature provides insight into the role of early experience on the brain systems underlying the development of emotional behavior. These data indicate that the vasopressin and oxytocin neuropeptide systems, which are critical in the establishment of social bonds and the regulation of emotional behaviors, are affected by early social experience. The results of this experiment suggest a potential mechanism whose atypical function may explain the pervasive social and emotional difficulties observed in many children who have experienced aberrant care-giving. The present findings are consistent with the view that there is a critical role for early experience in the development of the brain systems underlying basic aspects of human social behavior.
attachment | emotion | oxytocin | vasopressin | child abuse
Conflict of interest statement: No conflicts declared.
This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office.
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
Abbreviations: OT, oxytocin; AVP, arginine vasopressin.
¶ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: spollak{at}wisc.edu.
© 2005 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
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