Pondering the Caregiver Environment and Development of Social Skills in Infants with Maya Opendak

The environment and experiences of caregivers can affect the development of social skills in the infants they care for in ways that can result in enduring changes in behavior patterns. In this episode neuroscientist Maya Opendak at Johns Hopkins University talks about her research using experimental models of deprivation and adversity which is shedding light on the brain circuits altered by deprivation and maternal stress and the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying those alterations. Such fundamental information will be required to fully understand and therefore work towards optimization of the early life environments of infants and their caregivers.

Links:

Dr. Opendak's lab webpage:

https://www.opendaklab.com/

Review article on animal models of early life adversity:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9385963/pdf/fnbeh-16-918862.pdf

Nature Communications 2020 – Adverse caregiving in infancy blunts neural processing of the mother:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7048726/pdf/41467_2020_Article_14801.pdf

Nature 2021 – rodents can acquire maternal behavior by social transmission.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8387235/pdf/41586_2021_Article_3814.pdf

Neuron 2021 – Bidirectional control of infant rat social behavior via dopaminergic

innervation of the basolateral amygdala:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8988217/pdf/nihms-1745418.pdf