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

authors

  • Hoekzema, Elseline
  • Tamnes, Christian K.
  • Berns, Puck
  • Barba-Müller, Erika
  • Pozzobon, Cristina
  • Picado, Marisol
  • Lucco, Florencio
  • MARTINEZ GARCIA, MAGDALENA TERESA
  • DESCO MENENDEZ, MANUEL
  • Ballesteros, Agustin
  • Crone, Eveline A.
  • Vilarroya, Oscar
  • CARMONA CAÑABATE, SUSANA

publication date

  • February 2020

volume

  • 112

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0306-4530

abstract

  • In mothers, offspring cues are associated with a powerful reinforcing value that motivates maternal care. Animal studies show that this is mediated by dopamine release into the nucleus accumbens, a core component of the brain's reward system located in the ventral striatum (VStr). The VStr is also known to respond to infant signals in human mothers. However, it is unknown whether pregnancy modifies the anatomy or functionality of this structure, and whether such modifications underlie its strong reactivity to offspring cues. Therefore, we analyzed structural and functional neuroimaging data from a unique pre-conception prospective cohort study involving first-time mothers investigated before and after their pregnancy as well as nulliparous control women scanned at similar time intervals. First, we delineated the anatomy of the VStr in each subject's neuroanatomical space and examined whether there are volumetric changes in this structure across sessions. Then, we tested if these changes could predict the mothers" brain responses to visual stimuli of their infants. We found decreases in the right VStr and a trend for left VStr reductions in the women who were pregnant between sessions compared to the women who were not. Furthermore, VStr volume reductions across pregnancy were associated with infant-related VStr responses in the postpartum period, with stronger volume decreases predicting stronger functional activation to offspring cues. These findings provide the first indications that the transition to motherhood renders anatomical adaptations in the VStr that promote the strong responsiveness of a mother's reward circuit to cues of her infant. © 2019 The Authors

keywords

  • adult; cues; facial recognition; humans; magnetic resonance imaging; maternal behavior; neuroimaging; parity; postpartum period; pregnancy; prospective studies; reward; ventral striatum; article; cohort analysis; conception; controlled study; female; functional neuroimaging; human; human experiment; infant; mother; nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; nucleus accumbens; nullipara; pregnancy; progeny; prospective study; puerperium; reward; anatomy and histology; association; diagnostic imaging; facial recognition; maternal behavior; neuroimaging; nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; parity; physiology; pregnancy; ventral striatum