Behavioral–pharmacological research in infant rats supports the role of cholecystokinin
(CCK) and opioid peptides in mediating early learning of new associations with aspects of …

For half a century, Seymour Levine's pioneering work on the interactions between mother
and infant have helped us understand the critical early factors that shape physiology and …

Though rarely included in studies of parent–infant interactions, affectionate touch plays a
unique and vital role in infant development. Previous studies in human and rodent models …

Touch represents one of our most important senses throughout life and particularly in the
context of our social and emotional experiences. In this review, we draw on research on …

Early experience in the context of suckling at the nipple is a crucial determinant of
neurobehavioral development in mammals. In particular, milk has been recognized by …

Milk delivery through suckling lowers human newborn heart and metabolic rates. In rat and
human infants pain threshold is markedly elevated and crying is arrested. These changes …

The existence of organized responses to milk in newborn mammals, which lack experience
at the nipple, implies the prenatal development of neural and behavioral systems for …

Touch is the most basic mammalian maternal behavior. As soon asan infant is born,
mammalian mothers begin to engage in the species-typical repertoire of maternal behavior …

The positive clinical effects caused by skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth or after
repeated skin-to-skin contact of premature infants (kangaroo care) or fullterm infants are well …

Publisher Summary The aim of this chapter is to show how repeated sensory information
provided by the mother concomitantly with the occurrence of suckling gains signal value for …