title: Evidence for a Caregiving Instinct: Rapid Differentiation of Infant from Adult Vocalizations Using Magnetoencephalography.
abstract: Crying is the most salient vocal signal of distress. The cries of a newborn infant alert adult listeners and often elicit caregiving behavior. For the parent, rapid responding to an infant in distress is an adaptive behavior, functioning to ensure offspring survival. The ability to react rapidly requires quick recognition and evaluation of stimuli followed by a co-ordinated motor response. Previous neuroimaging research has demonstrated early specialized activity in response to infant faces. Using magnetoencephalography, we found similarly early (100-200 ms) differences in neural responses to infant and adult cry vocalizations in auditory, emotional, and motor cortical brain regions. We propose that this early differential activity may help to rapidly identify infant cries and engage affective and motor neural circuitry to promote adaptive behavioral responding, before conscious awareness. These differences were observed in adults who were not parents, perhaps indicative of a universal brain-based "caregiving instinct."
authors.affiliation: Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry.|Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.|Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Katherine S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Young
authors.affiliation: Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry.|Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Christine E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Parsons
authors.affiliation: Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Else-Marie
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Jegindoe Elmholdt
authors.affiliation: Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity (OHBA), University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Mark W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Woolrich
authors.affiliation: Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry.|Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Tim J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: van Hartevelt
authors.affiliation: Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry.|Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity (OHBA), University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.|Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Angus B A
authors.initials: ABA
authors.lastname: Stevner
authors.affiliation: Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry.|Wits/MRC Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.affiliation: Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry.|Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.|Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Morten L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Kringelbach
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology; D003448:Crying / Q000523:psychology; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D013995:Time; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: caregiving; infant; magnetoencephalography; orbitofrontal cortex; vocalization