Infant Bonding and Attachment to the Caregiver: Insights from Basic and Clinical Science
Section snippets
Attachment to the mother begins in utero
At birth, the full-term infant is attracted to the mother’s voice and smell, including the scent of amniotic fluid.3, 4 This attraction to the mother’s sensory stimuli is the first sign of the infant’s attachment and bonding to the mother. This attachment begins during the last trimester of pregnancy, when auditory and olfactory systems become functional, allowing the fetus to learn about the mother’s voice and odors. In the womb the fetus is suspended in amniotic fluid, causing the olfactory
Importance of attachment
The critical importance of the mother-infant attachment was noted by Sigmund Freud,31 who suggested that neuroses in adults were caused by aberrant infant experiences. Our current understanding of the complexity of the infant’s first social relationship, however, underwent a paradigm shift in the 1950s. As is documented later, it was the synthesis of research on nonhuman animals and clinical observations of hospitalized and orphaned children who were separated from their mothers that
Animal research and early-life experience
Because of ethical concerns the type of research questions one can address in humans is generally limited to correlations while questions of causation can generally be assessed only through the study of disease. Thus, scientists must rely on animal research to access causation and define underlying mechanisms of behaviors, such as attachment, in a more precise and controlled manner. However, the direct translation of animal research to humans requires both caution and an understanding of unique
Animal research and the neurobiology of attachment
Animal research has facilitated our understanding of human attachment by shedding light on the brain’s circuitry used to support attachment. The neural circuit for attachment in children has not been identified and cannot be identified based on the limits of existing technology. Therefore, we must continue to rely on the assumption that a neural circuit in the child’s brain supports attachment in the same way as we explore circuitry and neurochemistry in other species. This research has been
Pediatrics and attachment
Pediatric primary care provides a unique opportunity to detect infants at risk for attachment disorders.76 Based on findings in basic research, specific observational tools have been developed for the use in primary care.77 In a cross-sectional study of mothers and infants at an urban hospital clinic, the authors are currently assessing the prevalence of at-risk infants, using screening tools recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Preliminary data analyses of 133 mother-infant dyads
Concluding remarks
Infant attachment and bonding to the caregiver is widespread across animal species in which the survival of the young depends on a caregiver. The main function of attachment is to maintain contact between the infant and the caregiver to ensure infant survival. While infant-caregiver dyads are biologically predisposed to attach, learning about the caregiver is an additional determinant of the success and quality of attachment formation. The biological predisposition for attachment in infants
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All authors have no financial disclosures and/or conflicts of interest to disclose.
Funding: NIH MH091451, DC009910, DC003906, and NSF-IOB0850527/0544406 to RMS and NIH MH085807 to KK.