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.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.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.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019
- dc.identifier.issn 0306-4530
- dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/45010
- 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.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
- dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/
- 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.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.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion