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

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...

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Autores: Hoekzema, Elseline, Tamnes, Christian K., Berns, Puck, Barba-Müller, Erika, Pozzobon, Cristina, Picado, Marisol, Lucco, Florencio, Martínez-García, Magdalena, Desco, Manuel, Ballesteros, Agustín, Crone, Eveline A., Vilarroya, Óscar, Carmona, Susanna
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/45010
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/45010
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:MRI
Maternal brain
Nucleus accumbens
Pregnancy
Reward circuit
Ventral striatum
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spelling Becoming a mother entails anatomical changes in the ventral striatum of the human brain that facilitate its responsiveness to offspring cuesHoekzema, ElselineTamnes, Christian K.Berns, PuckBarba-Müller, ErikaPozzobon, CristinaPicado, MarisolLucco, FlorencioMartínez-García, MagdalenaDesco, ManuelBallesteros, AgustínCrone, Eveline A.Vilarroya, ÓscarCarmona, SusannaMRIMaternal brainNucleus accumbensPregnancyReward circuitVentral striatumIn 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.Elsevier202020202020info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10230/45010http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019reponame:Repositorio Digital de la UPFinstname:Universitat Pompeu FabraInglés0306-4530/ © 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/).http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/450102026-06-12T07:21:37Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Becoming a mother entails anatomical changes in the ventral striatum of the human brain that facilitate its responsiveness to offspring cues
title Becoming a mother entails anatomical changes in the ventral striatum of the human brain that facilitate its responsiveness to offspring cues
spellingShingle Becoming a mother entails anatomical changes in the ventral striatum of the human brain that facilitate its responsiveness to offspring cues
Hoekzema, Elseline
MRI
Maternal brain
Nucleus accumbens
Pregnancy
Reward circuit
Ventral striatum
title_short Becoming a mother entails anatomical changes in the ventral striatum of the human brain that facilitate its responsiveness to offspring cues
title_full Becoming a mother entails anatomical changes in the ventral striatum of the human brain that facilitate its responsiveness to offspring cues
title_fullStr Becoming a mother entails anatomical changes in the ventral striatum of the human brain that facilitate its responsiveness to offspring cues
title_full_unstemmed Becoming a mother entails anatomical changes in the ventral striatum of the human brain that facilitate its responsiveness to offspring cues
title_sort Becoming a mother entails anatomical changes in the ventral striatum of the human brain that facilitate its responsiveness to offspring cues
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Hoekzema, Elseline
Tamnes, Christian K.
Berns, Puck
Barba-Müller, Erika
Pozzobon, Cristina
Picado, Marisol
Lucco, Florencio
Martínez-García, Magdalena
Desco, Manuel
Ballesteros, Agustín
Crone, Eveline A.
Vilarroya, Óscar
Carmona, Susanna
author Hoekzema, Elseline
author_facet Hoekzema, Elseline
Tamnes, Christian K.
Berns, Puck
Barba-Müller, Erika
Pozzobon, Cristina
Picado, Marisol
Lucco, Florencio
Martínez-García, Magdalena
Desco, Manuel
Ballesteros, Agustín
Crone, Eveline A.
Vilarroya, Óscar
Carmona, Susanna
author_role author
author2 Tamnes, Christian K.
Berns, Puck
Barba-Müller, Erika
Pozzobon, Cristina
Picado, Marisol
Lucco, Florencio
Martínez-García, Magdalena
Desco, Manuel
Ballesteros, Agustín
Crone, Eveline A.
Vilarroya, Óscar
Carmona, Susanna
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv MRI
Maternal brain
Nucleus accumbens
Pregnancy
Reward circuit
Ventral striatum
topic MRI
Maternal brain
Nucleus accumbens
Pregnancy
Reward circuit
Ventral striatum
description 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.
publishDate 2020
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2020
2020
2020
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10230/45010
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019
url http://hdl.handle.net/10230/45010
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
instname:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
instname_str Universitat Pompeu Fabra
reponame_str Repositorio Digital de la UPF
collection Repositorio Digital de la UPF
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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score 15,812429

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