The Brain Reaction to Viewing Faces of Opposite- and Same-Sex Romantic Partners

Zeki, Semir; Romaya, John Paul

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015802

Cited by 128 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…This assumption is consistent with recent imaging studies, which showed no differences in response to the attachment target between homosexual and heterosexual men (37), and with our finding that homosexual and heterosexual fathers did not differ in their masculinity and femininity scores. Findings for all fathers that degree of amygdala-STS connectivity was associated with the amount of direct childcare responsibility further supports the hypothesis that our results describe human fathers' brain adaptation to caregiving activities.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

Father's brain is sensitive to childcare experiences

Abraham

Hendler

Shapira‐Lichter

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

251

274

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Although contemporary socio-cultural changes dramatically increased fathers' involvement in childrearing, little is known about the brain basis of human fatherhood, its comparability with the maternal brain, and its sensitivity to caregiving experiences. We measured parental brain response to infant stimuli using functional MRI, oxytocin, and parenting behavior in three groups of parents (n = 89) raising their firstborn infant: heterosexual primarycaregiving mothers (PC-Mothers), heterosexual secondary-caregiving fathers (SC-Fathers), and primary-caregiving homosexual fathers (PC-Fathers) rearing infants without maternal involvement. Results revealed that parenting implemented a global "parental caregiving" neural network, mainly consistent across parents, which integrated functioning of two systems: the emotional processing network including subcortical and paralimbic structures associated with vigilance, salience, reward, and motivation, and mentalizing network involving frontopolar-medial-prefrontal and temporo-parietal circuits implicated in social understanding and cognitive empathy. These networks work in concert to imbue infant care with emotional salience, attune with the infant state, and plan adequate parenting. PC-Mothers showed greater activation in emotion processing structures, correlated with oxytocin and parent-infant synchrony, whereas SC-Fathers displayed greater activation in cortical circuits, associated with oxytocin and parenting. PC-Fathers exhibited high amygdala activation similar to PC-Mothers, alongside high activation of superior temporal sulcus (STS) comparable to SC-Fathers, and functional connectivity between amygdala and STS. Among all fathers, time spent in direct childcare was linked with the degree of amygdala-STS connectivity. Findings underscore the common neural basis of maternal and paternal care, chart brain-hormone-behavior pathways that support parenthood, and specify mechanisms of brain malleability with caregiving experiences in human fathers.mothering | parent-infant interaction | alloparental care | transition to parenthood | social brain

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

Father's brain is sensitive to childcare experiences

Abraham

Hendler

Shapira‐Lichter

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

251

274

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…However, a few areas were differentially activated too, including parts of the forebrain that have been implicated in drug-use addiction (Fisher et al, 2006). Additionally, Zeki and Romaya (2010) found that patterns of brain activity of subjects in love did not differ depending on sexual orientation, either for males or females.…”

Section: Imaging Romance and Sexmentioning

confidence: 96%

Evolution and human sexuality

Gray

2013

American J Phys Anthropol

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The aim of this review is to put core features of human sexuality in an evolutionary light. Toward that end, I address five topics concerning the evolution of human sexuality. First, I address theoretical foundations, including recent critiques and developments. While much traces back to Darwin and his view of sexual selection, more recent work helps refine the theoretical bases to sex differences and life history allocations to mating effort. Second, I consider central models attempting to specify the phylogenetic details regarding how hominin sexuality might have changed, with most of those models honing in on transitions from a possible chimpanzee-like ancestor to the slightly polygynous and long-term bonded sociosexual partnerships observed among most recently studied hunter-gatherers. Third, I address recent genetic and physiological data contributing to a refined understanding of human sexuality. As examples, the availability of rapidly increasing genomic information aids comparative approaches to discern signals of selection in sexuality-related phenotypes, and neuroendocrine studies of human responses to sexual stimuli provide insight into homologous and derived mechanisms. Fourth, I consider some of the most recent, large, and rigorous studies of human sexuality. These provide insights into sexual behavior across other national samples and on the Internet. Fifth, I discuss the relevance of a life course perspective to understanding the evolution of human sexuality. Most research on the evolution of human sexuality focuses on young adults. Yet humans are sexual beings from gestation to death, albeit in different ways across the life course, and in ways that can be theoretically couched within life history theory. Am J Phys Anthropol 57:94-118, 2013. V C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.The aim of this review is to put core features of human sexuality in an integrative, evolutionary light. Given the central importance of sexuality to the evolutionary imperative-reproductive success-there is strong theoretical impetus for understanding how evolution has shaped human sexuality in the past, and for how the influence of past selective forces continue to manifest in the present. For biological anthropologists, interdisciplinary social and biomedical scientists, and even wider audiences, questions about human sexuality can be among the most compelling and meaningful, another reason to try informing answers to fundamental questions of human sexuality with the most scientifically supported and current views. An understanding of human sexuality is central to topics as diverse as predicting the dynamics of a sexually transmitted infection (STI) outbreak to the reasons why people pour so much of their time and resources into mating effort. Human sexuality, as much as any other topical focus within biological anthropology, warrants ongoing evolutionary scrutiny.For several reasons, this is arguably an opportune time for providing a current overview of the evolution of human sexuality. For one, many of the foundati...

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“…and Chinese participants (e.g., Xu et al, 2011;Zeki & Romaya, 2010) despite considerable literature on differences in self-reported experiences (e.g., Dion & Dion, 1993;Gao, 2001;Hatfield & Sprecher, 1995;Pines, 2001;Sprecher et al, 1994).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Falling in love and passionate love in an Iranian sample

Riela

Bajoghli

et al. 2018

Interpersona

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Romantic relationships and passionate love are topics of perennial interest to scientists and the lay public alike. While there is evidence of romantic love across many cultures, with some suggesting it is a universal human experience, the majority of research has been conducted in Western countries (e.g., the U.S.). When other cultures have been researched, the focus has typically been on Eastern countries (e.g., Japan). Much less is known about love experiences in countries such as Iran. The current study sought to address this gap and assessed 220 Iranian students. Participants completed a set of measures (translated into Farsi) and reported both qualitatively and quantitatively about love experiences (e.g., narrative account of their most recent falling in love experience, ratings about their relationship if they were currently in one). The majority of participants reported having fallen in love, although this was a notably smaller proportion (55%) than seen in past research. Similarly, content-analysis of narratives revealed fewer instances of 12 common precursors to falling in love found in past samples, though Iranian participants did highly endorse precursors when explicitly asked about them. Those in a relationship reported passionate love and high levels of closeness to their partner. This study highlights the need for additional love research in under-studied cultures, including research that can elucidate whether these results are due to actual differences in experiences, differences in reporting norms, third variables, or some combination.

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The Brain Reaction to Viewing Faces of Opposite- and Same-Sex Romantic Partners

Cited by 128 publications

References 34 publications

Father's brain is sensitive to childcare experiences

Father's brain is sensitive to childcare experiences

Evolution and human sexuality

Falling in love and passionate love in an Iranian sample

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