Why Study maternal behavior?
Maternal behavior encompasses any caregiving by a mother that promotes the survival and wellbeing of her offspring. This repertoire of behaviors varies widely across species and is shaped by maternal neurobiology, physiology, and the environment. In most mammals, it is typically the mother who assumes the primary caregiving role, providing nourishment (through nursing), cleaning, shelter, and protection.
These processes rely on a remarkable integration of cognitive, motivational, emotional, and sensory processes. When these systems disrupted, mothers may experience impairments in their ability to care for their offspring, which we see in conditions like postpartum anxiety and depression. These conditions can have serious long-term consequences for both mother and child.
Image: Mary Cassatt, The Bath, 1891Overall, caregiving is a complex and demanding social behavior, requiring mothers to allocate substantial metabolic, cognitive, and emotional resources to support their offspring. Why, then, do mothers invest in such a costly endeavor, and what might cause a mother to stop or alter this investment? My research aims to explore the neurobiological processes that drive maternal caregiving, identify the factors that disrupt these behaviors, and find strategies to restore caregiving when it is compromised.
During my doctoral studies, I studied the neurobiology of depression-related caregiving deficits. Now, as a postdoctoral researcher, I am continuing to investigate the neurobiology of maternal behavior—particularly, how mothers navigate caregiving when they are sick, and how caregiving can be restored when it is disrupted.