Biological Bases of Individual Variation in Paternal Nurturance

Detailed Summary

The overall goal of this project is to identify the genetic, hormonal, and neurobiological influences on paternal nurturing behavior and to determine if fathers' neural responses to infants can be modulated by neuropeptides known to play a role in parenting in experimental animal models. The aim is to determine if pharmacological manipulation of central oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) levels influences the neural response to viewing pictures of one's own infant or to hearing cry stimuli. In a double-blind procedure, fathers with 1-3 year old children will be scanned on two separate occasions; once under the influence of OT/AVP and once under the influence of placebo. Fathers will be randomized to either OT or AVP, and order of administration of drug and placebo will counterbalanced across subjects. Fathers will be scanned while viewing pictures of their own and an unknown child and while listening to unknown infant cry stimuli. The investigators hypothesize: * OT will augment the ventral tegmental area (VTA), ventral striatum and medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) response to viewing pictures of one's own child, and will augment the primary auditory cortex (AI) response of fathers to infant cries. * AVP will augment the lateral septum response to viewing own child pictures.

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Interventions