RESUMEN
For rats, maternal mediation of brief and longer term dam-pup separations were thought to account for pup differences in adult "emotionality." In this study, early handling (EH), maternal separation (MS), and maternal peer separation (MPS) groups were compared to an animal facility reared (AFR) group for maternal behavior and offspring adult open-field behavior in C57BL/6 mice. Although MS and MPS dams displayed higher levels of maternal behavior upon reunion, these group differences did not predict offspring open-field behavior. However, when offspring behavior was analyzed as a function of specific aspects of maternal behavior, irrespective of treatment group, pups that received high levels of quiescent nursing and activity, but not licking, were less "emotional." Individual differences in maternal licking of pups predicted variability of "emotional" behavior for AFR and EH pups. Thus, for this strain of mouse, individual and not treatment differences in maternal care predict offspring "emotional" development.
Asunto(s)
Conducta Animal/fisiología , Conducta Materna/psicología , Animales , Emociones/fisiología , Femenino , Masculino , Privación Materna , Ratones Endogámicos C57BL , Factores de TiempoRESUMEN
Evolutionary psychology (EP) emphasizes that socio-cultural experiences are constrained by the characteristics of the individual. Therefore, cultural experience acts on a nervous system biased to respond to in particular ways (i.e., human nature). For EP, evolutionary lineage and adaptive significance explain the development of such human nature (a "development to" approach). Gottlieb, and others in Developmental psychobiology (DPB), have explained the development of "instinctive" behavior patterns of a wide variety of animals using a "development from" approach. The DPB approach does not contradict a human nature that reflects an evolutionary heritage with adaptive value. We present three examples that demonstrate how a DPB approach to development accounts both for the expression of patterns specific to the individual as well as patterns that are species-typical (human nature, for humans) without shifting explanatory constructs and frameworks.
Asunto(s)
Desarrollo Humano , Evolución Biológica , Cultura , Humanos , Responsabilidad Parental , Teoría Psicológica , SociobiologíaRESUMEN
There are two levels of investigation for elucidating the evolution of parental behavior. The macro level focuses on how parental behavior can evolve as an aspect of reproduction. The micro level focuses on how species variations in parental behavior evolve. Recently, modern evolutionary biology has turned to developmental biology as a source for information about how trait variability (the substrate upon which natural selection and other evolutionary mechanisms can operate) can emerge during development (called "evo-devo"). Application of this evo-devo approach to the phenomenon of parental behavior requires identification of those mechanisms that produce variations in developmental pathways leading to parental behavior. It is these variations that provide the phenotypes for the potential evolution of different parental behavior systems. Variations in rodent maternal behavior affect the development of the HPA and HPG axes in their offspring. These mechanisms are examined to reveal how such developmental variations could underlie the evolution of biparental behavior. Knowledge of the developmental mechanisms responsible for species variations in mammalian parental behavior systems may provide insight into those mechanisms that may have been involved in the evolution of parental behavior itself.
Asunto(s)
Biología Evolutiva , Conducta Materna , Conducta Paterna , Animales , Evolución Biológica , Humanos , Masculino , Ratones , Ratas , Factores SexualesRESUMEN
Handedness is an aspect of hemispheric specialization whose pattern of expression may signal an unusual specialization that in turn, may underlie several developmental psychopathologies. It is generally believed that infant handedness is neither stable nor reliable and hence, cannot be used as an early marker of potential developmental abnormality of hemispheric specialization. We show that infant hand-use preferences for apprehending objects can be reliably assessed and may be relatively stable throughout the 7-13 month age period. However, the results also demonstrate that identifying infant handedness requires assessment using very large sample sizes with multiple assessment periods because it is likely that there may be many more than three patterns in the development of handedness during infancy.
Asunto(s)
Desarrollo Infantil , Conducta de Elección , Lateralidad Funcional , Desempeño Psicomotor , Factores de Edad , Femenino , Humanos , Individualidad , Lactante , Masculino , Valores de ReferenciaRESUMEN
Although age appears to be the defining characteristic of the concept of critical period, central to its investigation is the recognition that there are specific events which must occur in a particular order for the typical development of certain characteristics to occur. A brief history of some research on critical periods reveals that our questions have shifted from those of: is there a critical period and, if so, when does it occur; to questions of what contributes to the criticality of the period; and finally to how is criticality controlled during development. Abandoning age as a defining component of development has permitted the discovery of exactly how previous and current events construct subsequent events in the process of development. The shifts in questions about critical periods mark an increasing sophistication in understanding how development can be controlled.