Pregnancy entails a U-shaped trajectory in human brain structure linked to hormones and maternal attachment
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 p...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universitat Pompeu Fabra |
| Repositorio: | Repositorio Digital de la UPF |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/72467 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://hdl.handle.net/10230/72467 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-55830-0 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | Neuroscience Psychology |
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Pregnancy entails a U-shaped trajectory in human brain structure linked to hormones and maternal attachmentServin-Barthet, CamilaMartínez-García, MagdalenaPaternina-Die, MaríaMarcos-Vidal, LuisMartín de Blas, DanielSoler, AnnaKhymenets, Olha, 1974-Bergé, DanielCasals, GemmaPrats, PilarPozo Mendoza, Óscar J., 1975-Pretus, ClaraCarmona, SusannaVilarroya, ÓscarNeurosciencePsychologyGrowing 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.This work has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement No. 883069), ‘la Caixa’ Foundation under the project code LCF/PR/HR19/52160001, FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación – Agencia Estatal de Investigación (RTI2018-093952-B-I00), Instituto de Salud Carlos III project PI22/01365 and co-funded by European Regional Development Fund. M.M.-G. was funded by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Predoctorales de Formación en Investigación en Salud (PFIS) (contract FI18/00255) and S.C. was funded by a Miguel Servet Type II research contract (CPII21/00016). M.M.-G. and S.C. were co-funded by European Social Fund ‘Investing in your future’. A.S. was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PRE2019–091422).Nature Research2026202620252026info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/10230/72467http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-55830-0reponame:Repositorio Digital de la UPFinstname:Universitat Pompeu FabraInglésNature Communications. 2025;16(1):730info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/883069info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/2PE/RTI2018-093952-B-I00© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit 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:10230/724672026-06-12T07:21:37Z |
| dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Pregnancy entails a U-shaped trajectory in human brain structure linked to hormones and maternal attachment |
| title |
Pregnancy entails a U-shaped trajectory in human brain structure linked to hormones and maternal attachment |
| spellingShingle |
Pregnancy entails a U-shaped trajectory in human brain structure linked to hormones and maternal attachment Servin-Barthet, Camila Neuroscience Psychology |
| title_short |
Pregnancy entails a U-shaped trajectory in human brain structure linked to hormones and maternal attachment |
| title_full |
Pregnancy entails a U-shaped trajectory in human brain structure linked to hormones and maternal attachment |
| title_fullStr |
Pregnancy entails a U-shaped trajectory in human brain structure linked to hormones and maternal attachment |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Pregnancy entails a U-shaped trajectory in human brain structure linked to hormones and maternal attachment |
| title_sort |
Pregnancy entails a U-shaped trajectory in human brain structure linked to hormones and maternal attachment |
| dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv |
Servin-Barthet, Camila Martínez-García, Magdalena Paternina-Die, María Marcos-Vidal, Luis Martín de Blas, Daniel Soler, Anna Khymenets, Olha, 1974- Bergé, Daniel Casals, Gemma Prats, Pilar Pozo Mendoza, Óscar J., 1975- Pretus, Clara Carmona, Susanna Vilarroya, Óscar |
| author |
Servin-Barthet, Camila |
| author_facet |
Servin-Barthet, Camila Martínez-García, Magdalena Paternina-Die, María Marcos-Vidal, Luis Martín de Blas, Daniel Soler, Anna Khymenets, Olha, 1974- Bergé, Daniel Casals, Gemma Prats, Pilar Pozo Mendoza, Óscar J., 1975- Pretus, Clara Carmona, Susanna Vilarroya, Óscar |
| author_role |
author |
| author2 |
Martínez-García, Magdalena Paternina-Die, María Marcos-Vidal, Luis Martín de Blas, Daniel Soler, Anna Khymenets, Olha, 1974- Bergé, Daniel Casals, Gemma Prats, Pilar Pozo Mendoza, Óscar J., 1975- Pretus, Clara Carmona, Susanna Vilarroya, Óscar |
| author2_role |
author author author author author author author author author author author author author |
| dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv |
Neuroscience Psychology |
| topic |
Neuroscience Psychology |
| description |
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. |
| publishDate |
2025 |
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2025 2026 2026 2026 |
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
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article |
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publishedVersion |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10230/72467 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-55830-0 |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10230/72467 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-55830-0 |
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Inglés |
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Inglés |
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Nature Communications. 2025;16(1):730 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/883069 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/2PE/RTI2018-093952-B-I00 |
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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openAccess |
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application/pdf application/pdf |
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Nature Research |
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Nature Research |
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reponame:Repositorio Digital de la UPF instname:Universitat Pompeu Fabra |
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