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Myron A. Hofer, MD
Medicine, Psychiatry, Post Doc in Animal Behavior at the American Museum of Natural History
Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University
College of Physicians and Surgeons
1051 Riverside Drive - Unit #40
New York, NY 10032
Link to The Sackler Institute
Current Areas of Research:
Our research has centered on the role of the parent-infant relationship as the first major environmental influence on postnatal development. I and my colleagues have explored how early maternal separation and different patterns of mothering exert long-term effects on vulnerability to disease. Through an experimental analysis of the psychobiological events that enmesh the infant rat and its mother, we discovered hidden regulatory processes that have become the basis for a new understanding of the early origins of attachment, the dynamics of the separation response and the shaping of development by that first relationship. Recent work has focused on the infant rats' vocal response to isolation as a model of the first anxiety state. We have explored its neural basis, how it is regulated behaviorally by littermates, dams and predators, and how its developmental course can be altered by continued selection for high and/or low responders. More recently, we have been studying the developmental origins of the capacity of newborns to recognize, approach and stay close to their own mothers in the hours after birth. Currently I have become interested in the theoretical aspects of development and in concepts that can help bridge the gap between developmental processes at the molecular, cellular and behavioral levels.
Selected Publications:
Hofer, M. A. (2002). The riddle of development. In D. J. Lewkowicz, & R. Lickliter (Eds.), Conceptions of Development (pp. 5-29). Philadelphia: Psychology Press.
Hofer, M. A. (2002). Unexplained infant crying: an evolutionary perspective. Acta Paediatr 91, 491-6.
Polan, H. J., Milano, D., Eljuga, L., & Hofer, M. A. (2002). Development of rats: maternally directed orienting behaviors from birth to day 2. Dev Psychobiol 40, 81-103.
Hofer, M.A. (2001) Toward a Neurobiology of Attachment. In Nelson, C.A. & Luciana, M. (Eds.) Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, pp 599-616, MIT Press, Boston.
Hofer, M. A., Brunelli, S. A., & Shair, H. N. (2001). Developmental effects of selective breeding for an infantile trait: the rat pups ultrasonic isolation call (USV). Dev. Psychobiol., 1-16.
