A Physiological Approach to the Study of Attachment: The Mother's Attention and Her infant's Heart Rate

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Mothers and their neonatal babies were studied during breast-feeding and control periods. Those mothers whose attention to external stimuli diminished during feeding, when this was inferred from habituation rate, had babies whose heart rates significantly increased during feeding. On the other hand, mothers who did not show the expected relative inattention to external stimuli during feeding had babies whose heart rate did not significantly increase when they were fed. The possible relevance of these findings to the study of attachment behaviour is considered.