抄録
The prefrontal cortex has been shown to be involved in the regulation of emotions. It has been also reported that the prefrontal cortex related to the positive mood in mothers viewing pictures of their newborn infants. This study sought to determine the influence of sex and parental status on the prefrontal activity elicited by discrimination tasks of infant facial expressions. We measured NIRS activity of the prefrontal cortex in adults (male group, non-parent female group and mother group) when they see pictures on screen to judge a) the kind of pictures, b) the sex of adults, c) the emotion of adult facial expressions, d) the sex of infants, e) the emotion of infant facial expressions. This study was approved by the ethics committee of Nagasaki University. When subjects judge the emotion of infant, the concentration of delta oxygenated hemoglobin (oxyHb) was significantly increased in the right prefrontal cortex only in mother group compared with male and non-parent female groups (One way ANOVA followed by bonferoni / Dunn post hoc test; p<0.05). However, the left prefrontal cortex activity was not increased in any groups. No significant differences were found among the groups in the other discrimination tasks. These results suggest that the right frontal cortex is involved in maternal attachment behaviors. [J Physiol Sci. 2007;57 Suppl:S168]
