The maternal brain in women with a history of early-life maltreatment: an imagination-based fMRI study of conflictual versus pleasant interactions with children

How stress can influence brain adaptations to motherhood

“…Similar neural response patterns have been observed among mothers with older children. In a study of 22 mothers with a history of physical and/or sexual abuse and 25 control mothers with children ages 7 to 11, participants watched video clips of conflictual vs. pleasant interactions with their own child vs. an unfamiliar child ( Neukel et al, 2018 ). While viewing conflictual interactions with their own child, mothers with a history of childhood abuse showed greater activation in several regions including the hippocampus, insula, supplementary motor area, and middle frontal gyrus, but no brain region responded more strongly to pleasant interactions.…”

Maternal early life maltreatment and psychopathology affect the next generation: Alterations in post‐awakening cortisol levels of primary school‐aged children

“…It is well understood that ELM has severe and lasting effects on social cognition, including the recognition of facial emotions and empathy (Kelly et al., 2015; Locher, Barenblatt, Fourie, Stein, & Gobodo‐Madikizela, 2014). In addition, several studies from our group and others have shown that ELM may also influence the processing of and response to signals of the own child, parenting behavior, as well as the interaction with the own child (e.g., Bailey, DeOliveira, Wolfe, Evans, & Hartwick, 2012; Mielke et al., 2016; Neukel et al., 2018). These results support the hypothesis of the intergenerational transmission of abuse, stating that ELM not only impacts the affected individual but also the next generation (Oliver, 1993).…”

Neurobiological Implications of Parent–Child Emotional Availability: A Review

“…Neukel, et al [68] investigated the caregiving behavior of mothers with early life maltreatment (ELM) history (physical and/or sexual abuse or neglect), and used the maternal sensitivity scale of EA to investigate the effect of ELM on interactions in the next generation. They invited 47 mothers (22 ELM and 25 control mothers, who had none of the above indicators of maltreatment in their early life history) to interact with their children (7-11 years old), and collected their functional MRI during real-life interactions as well as imagined conflictual and pleasant interactions.…”

“…The findings indicated that the ELM mothers were less sensitive than the control mothers in their real-life interactions, but while imagining conflictual interactions with their own child, they showed increased activation in the amygdala, insula, and hippocampus, which are known to be involved in emotion-processing, with early experiences of trauma likely sensitizing these mothers to their child's distress communications, but not their pleasant communications. Thus, ELM mothers appear to be highly vigilant and responsive to negative interactions with their own child, but lack proper responsiveness and sensitivity during imagined pleasant or real-life mother-child interactions [68].…”