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Journal ArticleDOI

Maternal care, gene expression, and the transmission of individual differences in stress reactivity across generations.

Michael J. Meaney
- 01 Jan 2001 - 
- Vol. 24, Iss: 1, pp 1161-1192
TLDR
Evidence is provided for the importance of parental care as a mediator of the effects of environmental adversity on neural development and patterns of maternal care that increase stress reactivity in offspring are enhanced by stressors imposed on the mother.
Abstract
Naturally occurring variations in maternal care alter the expression of genes that regulate behavioral and endocrine responses to stress, as well as hippocampal synaptic development. These effects form the basis for the development of stable, individual differences in stress reactivity and certain forms of cognition. Maternal care also influences the maternal behavior of female offspring, an effect that appears to be related to oxytocin receptor gene expression, and which forms the basis for the intergenerational transmission of individual differences in stress reactivity. Patterns of maternal care that increase stress reactivity in offspring are enhanced by stressors imposed on the mother. These findings provide evidence for the importance of parental care as a mediator of the effects of environmental adversity on neural development.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

Epigenetic programming by maternal behavior.

TL;DR: It is shown that an epigenomic state of a gene can be established through behavioral programming, and it is potentially reversible, suggesting a causal relation among epigenomicState, GR expression and the maternal effect on stress responses in the offspring.
Journal ArticleDOI

Epigenetic regulation of the glucocorticoid receptor in human brain associates with childhood abuse

TL;DR: Findings translate previous results from rat to humans and suggest a common effect of parental care on the epigenetic regulation of hippocampal glucocorticoid receptor expression.
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Developmental potential in the first 5 years for children in developing countries

TL;DR: Two factors with available worldwide data—the prevalence of early childhood stunting and the number of people living in absolute poverty—are identified as indicators of poor development and show that both indicators are closely associated with poor cognitive and educational performance in children.
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Cognitive and affective development in adolescence

TL;DR: Taken together, these developments reinforce the emerging understanding of adolescence as a critical or sensitive period for a reorganization of regulatory systems, a reorganizations that is fraught with both risks and opportunities.
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The Technology of Skill Formation

TL;DR: Cunha and Heckman as mentioned in this paper discuss the technology of skill formation, report,ChicagoAmerican Economic Association,2007.May 7, 2007, pp. 17-20, p.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

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A synaptic model of memory: long-term potentiation in the hippocampus

TL;DR: The best understood form of long-term potentiation is induced by the activation of the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor complex, which allows electrical events at the postsynaptic membrane to be transduced into chemical signals which, in turn, are thought to activate both pre- and post Synaptic mechanisms to generate a persistent increase in synaptic strength.
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Place navigation impaired in rats with hippocampal lesions.

TL;DR: It is reported that, in addition to a spatial discrimination impairment, total hippocampal lesions also cause a profound and lasting placenavigational impairment that can be dissociated from correlated motor, motivational and reinforcement aspects of the procedure.
Journal ArticleDOI

Protective and Damaging Effects of Stress Mediators

TL;DR: The long-term effect of the physiologic response to stress is reviewed, which I refer to as allostatic load, which is the ability to achieve stability through change.
Journal ArticleDOI

Memory and the hippocampus: A synthesis from findings with rats, monkeys, and humans.

TL;DR: The role of the hippocampus is considered, which is needed temporarily to bind together distributed sites in neocortex that together represent a whole memory.
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