This article is part of a Special Issue “Parental Care”. Early mother–infant relationships play
important roles in infants' optimal development. New mothers undergo neurobiological
changes that support developing mother–infant relationships regardless of great individual
differences in those relationships. In this article, we review the neural plasticity in human
mothers' brains based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. First, we
review the neural circuits that are involved in establishing and maintaining mother–infant …