SACKLER INSTITUTE GRAND ROUNDS
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
11:00AM in Hellman Auditorium, 1st Floor Pardes
Ruth Feldman, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychology Bar-Ilan University
Yale School of Medicine Child Study Center
Synchrony – the coordination of biological and behavioral processes between attachment partners during social contact – provides the basis for the formation of affiliative bonds in mammals and is underpinned by the extended oxytocin (OT) system. Dr. Feldman presents the model of bio-behavioral synchrony and details the contribution of OT to the development of social synchrony at the genetic, brain, hormonal, and behavioral levels across the individual’s multiple attachment bonds. Research on the parental brain will be discussed as a template for species-continuity and the development of sociality in the young. Several long-term projects involving disruptions to the bonding process will be presented, including maternal post-partum depression, premature birth, and chronic trauma exposure, and their effects on children’s brain, behavior, and neuroendocrine systems from birth to adolescence. The philosophical implications of the model to the mind-brain polarity and its utility for the construction of targeted early interventions will be discussed.
