Pregnancy leads to long-lasting changes in human brain structure

Hoekzema, Elseline; Barba-Müller, Erika; Pozzobon, Cristina; Picado, Marisol; Lucco, Florencio; García‐García, David; Soliva, Juan Carlos; Tobeña, Adolf; Desco, Manuel; Crone, Eveline A.; Ballesteros, A.; Carmona, Susanna; Vilarroya, Óscar

doi:10.1038/nn.4458

Cited by 587 publications

(614 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…As such, it would not be surprising to find that that these circulating fetal progenitor cells would also be able to affect the mother’s central immune system. Also in support of this idea, it is well-known that first-time pregnancy results in significant plasticity within the female brain, both in rodents (Leuner and Sabihi, 2016) and in humans (Hoekzema et al, 2016). In rodents, this plasticity is necessary to induce appropriate postpartum maternal behaviors, and once a dam has given birth for the first time, she is maternal towards any pups she encounters thereafter, even if she is not their biological mother or actively lactating (Bridges, 2015; Fleming et al, 1999).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

An examination of changes in maternal neuroimmune function during pregnancy and the postpartum period

Sherer

Posillico

Schwarz

2017

Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

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There is strong evidence that the immune system changes dramatically during pregnancy in order to prevent the developing fetus from being "attacked" by the maternal immune system. Due to these alterations in peripheral immune function, many women that suffer from autoimmune disorders actually find significant relief from their symptoms throughout pregnancy; however, these changes can also leave the mother more susceptible to infections that would otherwise be mitigated by the inflammatory response (Robinson and Klein, 2012). Only one other study has looked at changes in microglial number and morphology during pregnancy and the postpartum period (Haim et al., 2016), but no one has yet examined the neuroimmune response following an immune challenge during this time. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the impact of an immune challenge during various time-points throughout pregnancy and the postpartum period on the expression of immune molecules in the brain of the mother and fetus. Our results indicate that similar to the peripheral immune suppression measured during pregnancy, we also see significant suppression of the immune response in the maternal brain, particularly during late gestation. In contrast to the peripheral immune system, immune modulation in the maternal brain extends moderately into the postpartum period. Additionally, we found that the fetal immune response in the brain and placenta is also suppressed just before parturition, suggesting that cytokine production in the fetus and placenta are mirroring the peripheral cytokine response of the mother.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

An examination of changes in maternal neuroimmune function during pregnancy and the postpartum period

Sherer

Posillico

Schwarz

2017

Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

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“…1). A recent longitudinal study of women before pregnancy and at two times points post-pregnancy provided convincing evidence for lasting grey matter volume changes in brain regions involved in social processes 52 . Human motherhood might therefore have a widespread impact on responding to salient emotional information from the environment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Duration of motherhood has incremental effects on mothers’ neural processing of infant vocal cues: a neuroimaging study of women

Parsons

Young

Petersen

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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The transition to motherhood, and the resultant experience of caregiving, may change the way women respond to affective, infant signals in their environments. Nonhuman animal studies have robustly demonstrated that mothers process both infant and other salient signals differently from nonmothers. Here, we investigated how women with and without young infants respond to vocalisations from infants and adults (both crying and neutral). We examined mothers with infants ranging in age (1–14 months) to examine the effects of duration of maternal experience. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that mothers showed greater activity than nonmothers to vocalisations from adults or infants in a range of cortical regions implicated in the processing of affective auditory cues. This main effect of maternal status suggests a general difference in vocalisation processing across infant and adult sounds. We found that a longer duration of motherhood, and therefore more experience with an infant, was associated with greater infant-specific activity in key parental brain regions, including the orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala. We suggest that these incremental differences in neural activity in the maternal brain reflect the building of parental capacity over time. This is consistent with conceptualizations of caregiving as a dynamic, learning process in humans.

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“…Kim et al (2010) observed increases in grey matter volume when comparing the first to the fourth month postpartum. On the other hand, Hoekzema et al (2017) reported decreases in brain structure (grey matter volume, cortical thickness, surface area) during pregnancy, then minimal changes from 2 months postpartum to 2-year follow-ups. Another paper (Oatridge et al, 2002) reported an overall brain size decrease during pregnancy, but full recovery by six months postpartum.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Cortical thickness variation of the maternal brain in the first 6 months postpartum: associations with parental self-efficacy

2018

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The postpartum period is associated with structural and functional plasticity in brain regions involved in parenting. While one study identified an increase in gray matter volume during the first 4 months among new mothers, little is known regarding the relationship between cortical thickness across postpartum months and perceived adjustment to parenthood. In this study of 39 socioeconomically diverse first-time new mothers, we examined the relations among postpartum months, cortical thickness, and parental self-efficacy. We identified a positive association between postpartum months and cortical thickness in the prefrontal cortex including the superior frontal gyrus extending into the medial frontal and orbitofrontal gyri, in the lateral occipital gyrus extending into the inferior parietal and fusiform gyri, as well as in the caudal middle frontal and precentral gyri. The relationship between cortical thickness and parental self-efficacy was specific to the prefrontal regions. These findings contribute to our understanding of the maternal brain in the first 6 months postpartum and provide evidence of a relationship between brain structure and perceived adjustment to parenthood.

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Pregnancy leads to long-lasting changes in human brain structure

Cited by 587 publications

References 68 publications

An examination of changes in maternal neuroimmune function during pregnancy and the postpartum period

An examination of changes in maternal neuroimmune function during pregnancy and the postpartum period

Duration of motherhood has incremental effects on mothers’ neural processing of infant vocal cues: a neuroimaging study of women

Cortical thickness variation of the maternal brain in the first 6 months postpartum: associations with parental self-efficacy

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