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

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dc.contributor.author Hoekzema, Elseline
dc.contributor.author Tamnes, Christian K.
dc.contributor.author Berns, Puck
dc.contributor.author Barba-Müller, Erika
dc.contributor.author Pozzobon, Cristina
dc.contributor.author Picado, Marisol
dc.contributor.author Lucco, Florencio
dc.contributor.author Martínez-García, Magdalena
dc.contributor.author Desco, Manuel
dc.contributor.author Ballesteros, Agustín
dc.contributor.author Crone, Eveline A.
dc.contributor.author Vilarroya, Óscar
dc.contributor.author Carmona, Susanna
dc.date.accessioned 2020-06-18T06:39:29Z
dc.date.available 2020-06-18T06:39:29Z
dc.date.issued 2020
dc.identifier.citation Hoekzema E, Tamnes CK, Berns P, Barba-Müller E, Pozzobon C, Picado M, et al. Becoming a mother entails anatomical changes in the ventral striatum of the human brain that facilitate its responsiveness to offspring cues. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2020 Feb; 112:104507. DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019
dc.identifier.issn 0306-4530
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/45010
dc.description.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.
dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
dc.language.iso eng
dc.publisher Elsevier
dc.rights 0306-4530/ © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/).
dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/
dc.title Becoming a mother entails anatomical changes in the ventral striatum of the human brain that facilitate its responsiveness to offspring cues
dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019
dc.subject.keyword MRI
dc.subject.keyword Maternal brain
dc.subject.keyword Nucleus accumbens
dc.subject.keyword Pregnancy
dc.subject.keyword Reward circuit
dc.subject.keyword Ventral striatum
dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

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