Are there differences in the way the brain responds for people of different cultures, ages, or gender?
AB: Some of this new literature stemmed from attachment theory, like Daniel Stern’s early work on the mother-infant attachment. Babies are born with an immature orbital frontal cortex—that area of the brain that’s necessary for social relationships. In fact, we know now that this part of the brain develops to its full capacity in healthy relationships, by the washing of the dopamine, the endorphins, the serotonin. If the child has been in a good care-taking relationship or exposed to minimal stress, then it develops this ever-increasing ability to adapt, to change, to be flexible, and to be related. Every healthy baby is born with that potential. When you think about that, early intervention should begin as soon as the baby is born and it needs to focus on psycho-education, on how a healthy child grows up and develops. From a gender perspective, there’s a group of neuro-affiliative hormones that help us connect and bond. For women, the estrogen level is high and it works well with oxyt
