ABSTRACT
In human populations, children exposed to abuse also manifest higher levels of cortisol and catecholamine stress hormones, and infant attachment security correlates with cortisol reactivity to stress. While maternal behaviours may act to promote infant development, infant cues may also stimulate maternal care, even modifying pre-existing behaviour patterns. Maternal behaviour has been shown to influence infant neural development in three specific areas: stress reactivity, cognition, and maternal behaviour in female offspring. Understanding the neurobiology of attachment may help us to better formulate and address the pervasive problem of child abuse and neglect. Two neuroendocrine systems that may be related to these forms of information processing are the dopaminergic and oxytocinergic systems, the development of which appears to be influenced by early life experience, such as variations in maternal behaviour. The dopaminergic system is involved in reinforcement stimulus–reward learning and in decision making based on predicted reward.
