An Examination of the Role of Oxytocin in Breastfed and Bottle Fed Infants' Emotional and Psysiological Organization
Chris Porter,
Family Life
This collaborative program of study aims to increase understanding of the role of oxytocin in the emergence of regulatory behavioral and physiological systems of the infant. The study will examine the influence of oxytocin among breastfed and bottle fed infants' own oxytocin levels, and their behavioral and physiological organization in relation to emotional regulatory abilities and the emergence of cardiovascular regulatory processes, namely cardiac vagal tone. It is hoped that this study will show that infants' early behavioral and physiological organization is influenced by maternal caregiving and feeding practices. The primary research question is whether infants' early behavioral and physiological organization is affected by the release of oxytocin during breastfeeding. Dr. Holt-Lunstad will also exxamine the impact on oxytocin release on the organization of maternal behaviors and will test two competing hypotheses (1) Do human females have a form of
lactation aggression, (Gosch, Meddle, Beiderbeck, Douglas, & Neumann, 2005) similar to that found in many other mammals, that allows them to exert defensive aggression in response to a threatening stimulus? Or (2) do females avoid confrontation and show increased desire to tend to their child in response to a stressor or threat, as would be predicted by the
Tend and Befriend theoretical model--a female alternative to the
Fight or Flight response (Hardy, 1999). This study focuses on the dimensions of the project that will involve the infants' side of this research equation.
