Journal Article Ppublish
PubMed: 42062236 DOI: 10.1111/jne.70191
Neural variability across the transition to motherhood: Enhanced moment-to-moment neural variability during mentalizing in first-time mothers.
J Neuroendocrinol 38(5):e70191
Authors: Sara Halmans, Milou Straathof, Sophie van 't Hof, Damiaan Denys, Eveline A Crone, Kristoffer N T MÃ¥nsson, Elseline Hoekzema
Affiliations
- Pregnancy Brain Lab, Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam Reproduction and Development, Amsterdam University Medical Center (AUMC), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- Department of Psychiatry, AUMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- Brain and Development Research Centre, Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
- Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Abstract
Pregnancy is known to induce profound structural adaptations in the female brain, especially in regions involved in social cognition. This pre-conception cohort fMRI study examined changes in neural signal variability and functional connectivity during mentalizing tasks among 110 women (M age = 30.5 years, SD = 3.5, range = 25-41), including 40 first-time mothers, 30 s-time mothers, and 40 nulliparous control women. Participants completed a mentalizing task before and after pregnancy, and, for a subset, 1 year postpartum. First-time mothers exhibited increased neural variability in response to child-related stimuli in the early postpartum period relative to their pre-conception baseline, whereas control women and second-time mothers showed decreases consistent with typical age-related changes. In controls, decreased neural variability correlated with declines in mentalizing task performance, suggesting that neural variability supports flexible and effective cognitive processing. Effects were stimulus- and parity-specific, with first-time mothers showing selective increases to child-related cues and second-time mothers showing distinct changes in adult-related processing. These findings suggest that pregnancy, particularly in first-time mothers, selectively preserves or enhances neural flexibility for processing infant social cues and that neural variability is a key marker of these adaptations.
MeSH
Pregnancy, Parenting, Mothers, Theory Of Mind, Neurosecretory Systems, Hormones, Social Cognition, Nervous System, Parity, Postpartum Period, Mentalization, Child