ArticleNature communications2025
Pregnancy entails a U-shaped trajectory in human brain structure linked to hormones and maternal attachment.
Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed.
- Puberty, pregnancy, and menopause show shared and distinct structural changes across the lifespan.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Examining dynamic changes in prefrontal connectivity and internalizing symptoms during the first and third trimesters of pregnancy.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Bonding before birth: Maternal-fetal attachment and maternal cortical connectivity in late pregnancy.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- The influence of sex on cognition in psychosis.Schizophrenia research. Cognition · 2026Article
- Triple Network Neuroplasticity and Perinatal Mood Symptoms from Preconception to Postpartum: A Pilot Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Application of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to support pain neuroscience research in persons who are pregnant.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Beyond lactation: Central oxytocin in maternal mental health and disease.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2026Review
- Maternal experience alters brain-wide representation of infant cries.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Prenatal and childhood exposure to common plasticizers in relation to emotional and behavioral development through adolescence.The Science of the total environment · 2026Article
- The social circumstances of the maternal experience and its biobehavioral associations, in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta).Animal reproduction science · 2026Article
- Maternal brain alterations based on neurotransmitter and hormone receptor distributions over six months postpartum.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Maternal depression symptoms as a context for longitudinal changes in the perinatal brain and infant emotion outcomes.Archives of women's mental health · 2026Article
- GABAergic Neuroactive Steroids and Network States: Relevance to Peripartum Depression.Biological psychiatry · 2026Review
- Neural variability across the transition to motherhood: Enhanced moment-to-moment neural variability during mentalizing in first-time mothers.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- The PMADS Project: A Longitudinal Multimodal Cohort Study to Understand Risk for Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Brain anatomy in major hormonal transition phases: Longitudinal and cross-sectional volume associations with menarche and menopause.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Traces of Parenthood but Not Pregnancy Loss in UK Biobank Structural Brain MRI Data.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- The effects of a second pregnancy on women's brain structure and function.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Dense sampling for mapping pituitary growth dynamics before, during, and after pregnancy.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Inter- and intra-individual differences in brain sex map to neuroendocrine profiles.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Growing evidence places the gestational period as a unique moment of heightened neuroplasticity in adult life. In this longitudinal study spanning pre, during, and post pregnancy, we unveil a U-shaped trajectory in gray matter (GM) volume, which dips in late pregnancy and partially recovers during postpartum. These changes are most prominent in brain regions associated with the Default Mode and Frontoparietal Network. The U-shaped trajectory is predominantly linked to gestational factors, as it only presents in gestational mothers and correlates with fluctuations in estrogens over time. Finally, the mother's mental health status mediates the relationship between postpartum GM volume recovery and maternal attachment at 6 months postpartum. This research sheds light on the complex interplay between hormones, brain development, and behavior during the transition to motherhood. It addresses a significant knowledge gap in the neuroscience of human pregnancy and opens new possibilities for interventions aimed at enhancing maternal health and well-being.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.