How does emotional development parallel and affect social development?
Michael Meaney has done extensive research on rats looking at maternal, nurturing behavior and the biological and behavioral concomitants of that behavior in rat offspring. In rats maternal behavior is characterized by licking, grooming, arched-back nursing (LG-ABN). The offspring of high LG-ABN rat mothers had more dense glucocorticoid receptor fields in their hippocampi. This means that their brains were better able to shut down the body’s physiological reaction to anxiety. These rats were also more likely to explore their environments and look for food, while the offspring of low LG-ABN mothers typically huddled to the corners instead of exploring their environments because they were afraid, and less able to regulate their negative emotional response. Similarly, the offspring of high LG-ABN mothers also showed higher levels of a hormone called oxytocin which has been implicated in prosocial behavior. Oxytocin is released in mothers when their babies cry, and is released when people
