Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg

About

Marian J Bakermans-Kranenburg is full professor at the University Institute of Psychological, Social and Life Sciences, Lisbon, Portugal. Her research focus is attachment and emotion regulation in parents and their children, with special emphasis on the neurobiological processes involved in parenting and development. She examined the underlying mechanisms of adults’ caregiving responses, using an experimental design with cry sounds as well as a life-like crying baby doll. With her team, she documented the effects of oxytocin administration on neural and behavioral responses to infant crying and infant laughter. She has served as a PI on nationally funded grants that examined parenting and child development, and on a research project examining neurobiological factors involved in fathers’ parenting, funded by an Advanced Grant of the European Research Council. As part of this research project, they conducted a series of randomised controlled trials to test the effects of two pharmacological interventions (oxytocin and vasopressin) and two behavioral interventions (prenatal video feedback using ultrasound, and postnatal use of a soft infant carrier) on hormonal, neural, and behavioral functioning in first-time fathers.