The plasticity of human maternal brain: Longitudinal changes in brain anatomy during the early postpartum period.

Kim, Pilyoung; Leckman, James F.; Mayes, Linda C.; Feldman, Ruth; Wang, Xin; Swain, James E.

doi:10.1037/a0020884

Cited by 369 publications

(401 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…For example, learning was impaired by stress in virgin females, but not in females that had offspring and/or learned to care for offspring at some time in her life-even well after weaning [27,72]. In women, the amount of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala increases during the first month of having a baby and some of those changes relate to positive thoughts about her baby [73]. But motherhood is not the only substantial change that females experience.…”

Section: You Have Come a Long Way Baby!mentioning

confidence: 99%

A trip down memory lane about sex differences in the brain

Shors¹

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Section: You Have Come a Long Way Baby!mentioning

confidence: 99%

A trip down memory lane about sex differences in the brain

Shors¹

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…(reviewed in ref. 33), and gray matter in the VTA increases in new mothers during the early postpartum period (34).…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Testicular volume is inversely correlated with nurturing-related brain activity in human fathers

Mascaro

Hackett²,

Rilling

2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

121

102

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Despite the well-documented benefits afforded the children of invested fathers in modern Western societies, some fathers choose not to invest in their children. Why do some men make this choice? Life History Theory offers an explanation for variation in parental investment by positing a trade-off between mating and parenting effort, which may explain some of the observed variance in human fathers' parenting behavior. We tested this hypothesis by measuring aspects of reproductive biology related to mating effort, as well as paternal nurturing behavior and the brain activity related to it. Both plasma testosterone levels and testes volume were independently inversely correlated with paternal caregiving. In response to viewing pictures of one's own child, activity in the ventral tegmental area-a key component of the mesolimbic dopamine reward and motivation system-predicted paternal caregiving and was negatively related to testes volume. Our results suggest that the biology of human males reflects a trade-off between mating effort and parenting effort, as indexed by testicular size and nurturing-related brain function, respectively. empathy | sperm competition

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“…Not only is this the period when a child's brain and body are most rapidly developing, it is also a period when a parent's brain undergoes plastic changes to support the parental role (Kim and Bianco 2014;Swain et al 2014). For example, during the first few months of the postpartum period, both new mothers and fathers exhibit structural growth in brain regions including the striatum and prefrontal cortex that support warm and supportive parenting behaviors (Kim et al 2010b;. Sensitive neural activations, particularly for one's own baby, have also been consistently identified among new mothers and fathers during these same periods, when parents and infants establish long-lasting emotional relationships (Barrett and Fleming 2011;Mascaro et al 2013;Musser et al 2012).…”

Section: Suggestions For Policy and Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%