Dr. Alison Fleming
Fellow
Current Employer
University of Toronto
Election Year
2004
Academy
Academy of Social Sciences
Discipline
Psychology
Department
Department of Psychology
Keywords
Hormones and behavior, functional hypothalamic and limbic neuroanatomy, behavioral neuroscience, human mothering, maternal behavior
LONG
Alison Fleming is widely regarded as the pioneer of neurobiological research on maternal behaviour in laboratory animals and human mothers. She was the first to show that hormones do not control this behaviour one action at a time, but that they influence mothers’ emotions, perceptions, and learning, in relation to young in a way that depends on brain areas that comprise a “maternal circuit”. She has shown that animals’ abilities in competent mothering depend on brain changes that occurred in infancy when they were being mothered. She has shown, too, how comparable hormonal changes and experience affect human mothering.
SHORT
Alison Fleming is the pioneer of neurobiological research on maternal behaviour in rat and human mothers. She was the first to show that hormones influence maternal emotions, perceptions, and learning through their action on “maternal neural circuits”. She has shown that competent mothering in animals depends on experiences and brain changes that occur in infancy and that comparable hormonal changes and experience are associated with human mothering.
Alison Fleming is widely regarded as the pioneer of neurobiological research on maternal behaviour in laboratory animals and human mothers. She was the first to show that hormones do not control this behaviour one action at a time, but that they influence mothers’ emotions, perceptions, and learning, in relation to young in a way that depends on brain areas that comprise a “maternal circuit”. She has shown that animals’ abilities in competent mothering depend on brain changes that occurred in infancy when they were being mothered. She has shown, too, how comparable hormonal changes and experience affect human mothering.
SHORT
Alison Fleming is the pioneer of neurobiological research on maternal behaviour in rat and human mothers. She was the first to show that hormones influence maternal emotions, perceptions, and learning through their action on “maternal neural circuits”. She has shown that competent mothering in animals depends on experiences and brain changes that occur in infancy and that comparable hormonal changes and experience are associated with human mothering.
1943