Behavioral Neuroscience & Development

I am interested in the various routes (environmental, genetic, epigenetic) through which mothers and fathers may have a differential impact upon their offspring’s development, and how these effects may be transmitted trans-generationally. I am particularly interested in the mother-infant relationship and how each individual regulates this interaction as well as the consequences of variations in this care for offspring behavior. I also investigate the neural regulation of maternal care and argue that the evolution of these neural systems formed the basis for the evolution of regulating complex mammalian social relationships. Finally, I research the inter-relationship between parental anxiety and depression, family functioning, child attachment and behavioral outcomes.

Champagne FA & Curley JP, 2009, Epigenetic mechanisms mediating the long-term effects of maternal care on development, Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 33: 593-600

Keverne EB & Curley JP, 2008, Epigenetics, brain evolution and behaviour, Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology 29: 398-412.

Broad KD, Curley JP & Keverne EB, 2006, Mother-infant bonding and the evolution of mammalian social relationships, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. 361: 2199-2214.

 

W3615 Children at Risk (seminar)