Preliminary genetic imaging study of the association between estrogen receptor-α gene polymorphisms and harsh human maternal parenting

Abstract

A failure of neural changes initiated by the estrogen surge in late pregnancy to reverse the valence of infant stimuli from aversive to rewarding is associated with dysfunctional maternal behavior in nonhuman mammals. Estrogen receptor-α plays the crucial role in mediating these neural effects of estrogen priming. This preliminary study examines associations between estrogen receptor-α gene polymorphisms and human maternal behavior. Two polymorphisms were associated with human negative maternal parenting. Furthermore, hemodynamic responses in functional magnetic resonance imaging to child stimuli in neural regions associated with social cognition fully mediated the association between genetic variation and negative parenting. This suggests testable hypotheses regarding a biological pathway between genetic variants and dysfunctional human maternal parenting.

Figure 1

Significant hemodynamic responses in (a) own > other child, and in (b) inappropriate > appropriate behavior contrasts in fMRI.

Figure 2

Scatter plots with group means for hemodynamic responses in own/other child (O) and inappropriate/appropriate behavior (I) contrasts in neural regions significantly related to both negative parenting and ESR1 rs1884051 (top). Activations are expressed as normalized z-scores residualized on covariates. SEM revealed mediation of the genetic association with negative parenting by the ROIs (bottom left). Scatter plot of negative parenting residualized on covariates with the latent neural construct (bottom right).