title: The Human Coparental Bond Implicates Distinct Corticostriatal Pathways: Longitudinal Impact on Family Formation and Child Well-Being.
abstract: Alloparental care, the cooperative care of offspring by group members other than the biological mother, has been widely practiced since early hominin evolution to increase infant survival and thriving. The coparental bond-a relationship of solidarity and commitment between two adults who join their effort to care for children-is a central contributor to children's well-being and sociality; yet, the neural basis of coparenting has not been studied in humans. Here, we followed 84 first-time co-parents (42 couples) across the first 6 years of family formation, including opposite-sex and same-sex couples, measured brain response to coparental stimuli, observed collaborative and undermining coparental behaviors in infancy and preschool, assayed oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP), and measured coparenting and child behavior problems at 6 years. Across family types, coparental stimuli activated the striatum, specifically the ventral striatum and caudate, striatal nodes implicated in motivational goal-directed social behavior. Psychophysiological interaction analysis indicated that both nodes were functionally coupled with the vmPFC in support of the human coparental bond and this connectivity was stronger as collaborative coparental behavior increased. Furthermore, caudate functional connectivity patterns differentiated distinct corticostriatal pathways associated with two stable coparental behavioral styles; stronger caudate-vmPFC connectivity was associated with more collaborative coparenting and was linked to OT, whereas a stronger caudate-dACC connectivity was associated with increase in undermining coparenting and was related to AVP. Finally, dyadic path-analysis model indicated that the parental caudate-vmPFC connectivity in infancy predicted lower child externalizing symptoms at 6 years as mediated by collaborative coparenting in preschool. Findings indicate that the coparental bond is underpinned by striatal activations and corticostriatal connectivity similar to other human affiliative bonds; highlight specific corticostriatal pathways as defining distinct coparental orientations that underpin family life; chart brain-hormone-behavior constellations for the mature, child-orientated coparental bond; and demonstrate the flexibility of this bond across family constellations and its unique contribution to child well-being.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and The Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
authors.forename: Eyal
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Abraham
authors.affiliation: Functional Brain Center, Wohl Institute of Advanced Imaging, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.|School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Gadi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gilam
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Center, Herzlia, Israel.
authors.forename: Yaniv
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kanat-Maymon
authors.affiliation: Functional Brain Center, Wohl Institute of Advanced Imaging, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.|Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Yael
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jacob
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and The Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
authors.forename: Orna
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Zagoory-Sharon
authors.affiliation: Functional Brain Center, Wohl Institute of Advanced Imaging, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.|School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.|Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Talma
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hendler
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and The Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.|Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5048-1381
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Feldman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000523:psychology* / Q000639:trends; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000639:trends; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D009769:Object Attachment; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology* / Q000639:trends; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology