here
http://www.epjournal.net/filestore/ep05102183.pdf in the last part there is something about the brain development influenced by caregivers. also a lot of references.
btw this is one of my favourite articles and I will copy some paragraphs here
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Most importantly, by changing the very structure and the patterns of activity within the brain, experiences in early life also influence how subsequent information will be processed, thus affecting future functioning. Even though this shaping process continues throughout life, its effects are particularly critical during these early stages of development when the foundations for the brain’s basic structure are laid.
For infants, their relationships with their main caregivers constitute the primary environment for their early development.
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Within this complex framework, affectionate and responsive caregiving during infancy is clearly emerging as an important prerequisite for healthy brain development and later emotional wellbeing.
Most obvious examples of the link between adverse early social experiences and resulting deficits in brain and overall functioning can be found in clinical samples. For instance, former Romanian orphans, who had experienced severe early social deprivation, still showed long-term deficits in their cognitive and behavioral functioning after being adopted into U.S. families, with concomitant dysfunction in a group of limbic brain areas typically activated by stress and known to be damaged by prolonged stress (Chugani et al., 2001). In an Australian sample of extremely low birth weight infants, a history of childhood neglect was further associated with a smaller head circumference at ages 2 and 4, and with increasingly delayed cognitive development over the first four years of life compared to children who had not experienced neglect (Strathearn, Gray, O’Callaghan, and Wood, 2001). Another U.S. study on children and adolescents with past experience of maltreatment, and continued posttraumatic stress disorder, also found significantly decreased cerebral and intracranial brain volumes in the maltreated subjects when compared to matched controls (De Bellis et al., 1999). In addition, intracranial brain volume correlated positively with child’s age at the time of abuse onset, and negatively with duration of abuse.
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Milder forms of relational deficits in parenting have also been shown to produce distinct findings. In a study conducted by Dawson, Frey, Panagiotides, et al. (1999) in the U.S., 13- to 15-month-old infants of depressed mothers, when compared to infants of nondepressed mothers, showed a persistent atypical pattern of lowered activity in the left frontal brain area relative to the right frontal region. In typically developing children, increased left versus right frontal activity is usually observed. The abnormal condition also persisted during positive interactions with a nondepressed adult. The left frontal area is assumed to mediate positive affective expression and social approach behaviors. On a behavioral level, these children touched their mothers less than their age-matched controls, displayed less affection towards her, and with increasing duration of maternal depression were also more likely to behave in a hostile and aggressive manner
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