Neurobiology of attachment to an abusive caregiver: short-term benefits and long-term costs.
Childhood maltreatment is associated with adverse brain development and later life psychiatric disorders, with maltreatment from the caregiver inducing a particular vulnerability to later life psychopathologies. Here we review two complementary rodent models of early life abuse, which are used to examine the infant response to trauma within attachment and the developmental trajectories that lead to later life neurobehavioral deficits. These rodent models include being reared with an abusive mother, and a more controlled attachment-learning paradigm using odor-shock conditioning to produce a new maternal odor. In both of these rodent models, pups learn a strong attachment and preference to the maternal odor. However, both models produce similar enduring neurobehavioral deficits, which emerge with maturation. Importantly, cues associated with our models of abuse serve as paradoxical safety signals, by normalizing enduring neurobehavioral deficits following abuse. Here we review these models and explore implications for human interventions for early life maltreatment.
Emotional Brain Institute, Nathan Kline Institute, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY; Neuroscience and Physiology, NYU Sackler Institute, New York, NY; Child Study Center, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY; NYU Neuroscience Institute, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY.
Rosemarie
R
Perry
Regina M
RM
Sullivan
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D009769:Object Attachment; D051381:Rats
abuse; amygdala; fear conditioning; later life outcome; maternal odor; olfaction; predator odor; pup; rat; safety signal; stress; threat