Mothers, Fathers, and Others: Neural Substrates of Parental Care

Becoming a mother entails anatomical changes in the ventral striatum of the human brain that facilitate its responsiveness to offspring cues.

From baby brain to mommy brain: Widespread gray matter gain after giving birth.

Neuroimaging researchers commonly assume that the brain of a mother is comparable to that of a nulliparous woman. However, pregnancy leads to pronounced gray matter volume reductions in the mother's brain, which have been associated with maternal attachment towards the baby. Beyond two years postpartum, no study has explored whether these brain changes are maintained or instead return to pre-pregnancy levels. The present study tested whether gray matter volume reductions detected in primiparous women are still present six years after parturition. Using data from a unique, prospective neuroimaging study, we compared the gray matter volume of 25 primiparous and 22 nulliparous women across three sessions: before conception (n = 25/22), during the first months of postpartum (n = 25/21), and at six years after parturition (n = 7/5). We found that most of the pregnancy-induced gray matter volume reductions persist six years after parturition (classifying women as having been pregnant or not with 91.67% of total accuracy). We also found that brain changes at six years postpartum are associated with measures of mother-to-infant attachment. These findings open the possibility that pregnancy-induced brain changes are permanent and encourage neuroimaging studies to routinely include pregnancy-related information as a relevant demographic variable.

Do Pregnancy-Induced Brain Changes Reverse? The Brain of a Mother Six Years after Parturition

How stress can influence brain adaptations to motherhood.

Pregnancy and the postpartum period involve numerous physiological adaptations that enable the development and survival of the offspring A distinct neural plasticity characterizes the female brain during this period, and dynamic structural and functional changes take place that accompany fundamental behavioral adaptations, stimulating the female to progress from an individual with self-directed needs to being responsible for the care of another life While many animal studies detail these modifications, an emerging body of research reveals the existence of reproduction-related brain plasticity in human mothers too Additionally, associations with aspects of maternal caregiving point to adaptive changes that benefit a woman’s transition to motherhood However, the dynamic changes that affect a woman’s brain are not merely adaptive, and they likely confer a vulnerability for the development of mental disorders Here, we review the changes in brain structure and function that a woman undergoes during the peripartum period, outlining associations between these neural alterations and different aspects of maternal care We additionally discuss peripartum mood disorders and postpartum psychosis, and review the neuroimaging studies that investigate the neural bases of these conditions

/pdf/brain-plasticity-in-pregnancy-and-the-postpartum-period-u7e7wa6nyk.pdf

Brain plasticity in pregnancy and the postpartum period: links to maternal caregiving and mental health.

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Brain plasticity in pregnancy and the postpartum period: links to maternal caregiving and mental health.