Maternal brain in the process of maternal-infant bonding: Review of the literature

F. Gholampour, M.M.E. Riem, M. Van den Heuvel

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The mother-infant relationship is one of the most important bonds among all mammals and develops when a mother shows emotional and physical attention toward her infant. Studies suggest that maternal brain alterations, including structural and functional changes, may help mothers to form a strong bond with their infant. Investigation of mothers’ unique response to her own infant, when smiling, crying or playing, could be the first step to uncover the neural bases of maternal-infant bonding. Studies are beginning to explore maternal brain changes underlying the process of mother-infant bonding. In this short review, we present an overview of the growing literature about maternal brain changes and neural responses to infant stimuli, which may underlie the process of forming the maternal-infant bond in healthy, non-clinical samples. Taken together, the maternal brain network consists mostly of areas related to salience/reward and emot processing, including the precuneus cortex, medial frontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, caudate and nucleus accumbens, amygdala, and insula. Recommendations for future research are also discussed.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)380-384
Number of pages5
JournalSocial Neuroscience
Volume15
Issue number4
Early online date21 May 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Funding

MvdH was funded by a Veni grant from the Dutch Scientific Oranization (NWO - VI.Veni.191G.025).

FundersFunder number
Dutch Scientific Oranization
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

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