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. 2021 Jul;63(5):1399-1414.
doi: 10.1002/dev.22058. Epub 2020 Nov 17.

White matter integrity moderates the relation between experienced childhood maltreatment and fathers' behavioral response to infant crying

Kim Alyousefi-van Dijk  1   2 , Noa van der Knaap  2   3 , Renate S M Buisman  1 , Lisa I Horstman  1   2 , Anna M Lotz  1   2 , Madelon M E Riem  1   4 , Carlo Schuengel  1 , Marinus H van IJzendoorn  3 , Marian J Bakermans-Kranenburg  1   2
Affiliations

White matter integrity moderates the relation between experienced childhood maltreatment and fathers' behavioral response to infant crying

Kim Alyousefi-van Dijk et al. Dev Psychobiol. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

The ability to provide appropriate responses to infant distress is vital to paternal care, but may be affected by fathers' experiences of childhood maltreatment. Detrimental effects of childhood maltreatment have been found in the adult brain's white matter fibers, accompanied with impaired emotional and cognitive functioning. In the current study (N = 121), we examined new and expectant fathers' childhood maltreatment experiences (i.e. emotional and physical abuse and neglect), current behavioral responses (i.e. handgrip force) to infant cry sounds, and white matter integrity using diffusion tensor imaging. First, more exposure to childhood maltreatment was associated with more use of excessive handgrip force in response to infant crying by fathers. Second, the association between experienced childhood maltreatment and white matter integrity was not significant in whole-brain analyses. Lastly, we found that the association between maltreatment exposure and excessive handgrip force during infant crying was absent in fathers with high tract integrity in the bilateral uncinate fasciculus. These findings possibly point to insufficient behavioral inhibition or emotional dysregulation in fathers who experienced childhood maltreatment, but buffering for this effect in those with larger integrity in brain fibers connecting the amygdala and prefrontal cortex.

Keywords: brain imaging; early experience; parental care; perinatal.

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Mean skeletonized FA in the bilateral uncinate fasciculus (bi UF) moderates the association between experienced childhood maltreatment and handgrip force ratios in response to infant crying. (a) Skeletonized FA values are depicted in red, with an anatomical mask (JHU White‐Matter Tractography Atlas) for the bilateral UF depicted in green. (b) A significant two‐way interaction was observed such that the mean FA value in the bilateral UF moderated the association of experienced childhood maltreatment and handgrip force in response to infant crying. The significant predictive value of maltreatment on handgrip force was only present for those individuals with low (N = 58; depicted in red) rather than high (N = 56; depicted in green) FA levels in the UF. Visualization is based on the complete cases dataset
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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