• Kok, Rianne, et al. “Normal Variation In Early Parental Sensitivity Predicts Child Structural Brain Development.” Journal Of The American Academy Of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 54.10 (2015): 824-831. PsycINFO. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.

Since early care giving has a long term impact on specific aspects of child development; correlating parental care and brain structure seems quite inevitable. In this article the author informs adults and the young adults about the impact and versatility of sensitive caregiving and how the adequacy your parenting skills could affect the functionality and structure of your child’s brain.  The author also tries to diagnose the potential of maternal vs paternal sensitivity affect it has on brain maturation but due to the scarce population in the homogenous field it failed to do so.  This passage contains a lot of heterogeneous samples with a high risk of abnormal development due to specific child or parenting characteristics.Previous research of foster homes, detention centers, daycares and other institutionalized care have shown that children who have been abandoned at an early age show significant decrease in the amount of corpus callosum (broad band of nerve fibers joining the two hemispheres of the brain) also called a gray matter because its affecting modules of the brain with in the cerebellum such as the hippocampus, vermis, and amygdala eventually giving them split brain. “Split Brain” is a condition characterized by a cluster of neurological abnormalities arising from the partial or complete severing or lesioning of the corpus callosum, the bundle of nerves that connects the right and left hemispheres of the brain.” Recent studies has shown that children who experience less sensitive parenting skills increases the risk of your child having social norms, child depression(lowering one’s esteem), or even having a substance abuse.  The author believes that increasing maternal sensitivity will result in greater white matter maturation and connectivity in preterm infants. “The results of these high-risk samples, however, may not be generalizable to the general population because of the relatively extreme caregiving experiences that these children were exposed to as well as the large number of potential confounders.”Secure attachment, higher levels of cognitive confidence, being socially construed, and showing adequate levels of conformity proves that your child was properly parented.  These examples signify the roles of both mothers and fathers in their child cognitive development and furthermore proves that as long as the child gets the adequate care and sensitivity it deserves there is no difference in the maternal vs paternal way of raising a child. “In addition to genetics, environmental influences such as parenting are involved in experience expectant and experience-dependent processes that can have an impact, for example, on the pruning and formation of synapses and thus affect brain structural development.”