Citation

Kuroda KO, Shiraishi Y, Shinozuka K. Psychiatry Clin. Neurosci. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/pcn.13096

PMID

32592505

Abstract

Behaviors comparable to human child maltreatment are observed widely among mammals, in which parental care is mandatory for offspring survival. This article reviews the recent findings on the neurobiological mechanisms for nurturing (infant caregiving) behaviors in mammals. Then the major causes of attack/desertion toward infants (conspecific young) in nonhuman mammals are classified into five categories. Three of the categories are "adaptive" in terms of reproductive fitness: (i) attack/desertion toward non-offspring, (ii) attack/desertion toward biological offspring with low reproductive value, and (iii) attack/desertion toward biological offspring under unfavorable environments. The other two are nonadaptive failures of nurturing motivation, induced by (iv) caregivers' inexperience or (v) dysfunction in caregivers' brain mechanisms required for nurturing behavior. The framework covering both adaptive and nonadaptive factors comprehensively classifies the varieties of mammalian infant maltreatment cases and will support the future development of tailored preventive measures for each human case. Also included are remarks that are relevant to interpretation of available animal data to humans: (1) Any kind of child abuse/neglect is not justified in modern human societies, even if it is widely observed and regarded as adaptive in nonhuman animals from the viewpoint of evolutionary biology; (2) group-level characteristics cannot be generalized to individuals; and (3) risk factors are neither deterministic nor irreversible. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

child abuse; infanticide; parent-child relations; parental care; psychoneurobiology