Animal studies indicate that early maternal care has long‐term effects on brain areas related
to social attachment and parenting, whereas neglectful mothering is linked with heightened …

Animal studies suggest that structural changes occur in the maternal brain during the early
postpartum period in regions such as the hypothalamus, amygdala, parietal lobe, and …

Research on maternal neural response to infant distress highlights circuits that may underlie
differences in quality of maternal behavior. However, it is far from clear which circuits are …

Mechanisms underlying the profound parental effects on cognitive, emotional and social
development in humans remain poorly understood. Studies with nonhuman models suggest …

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 …

This book presents cutting edge research on the basic neurobiology of parental behavior as
it relates to behavioral disorders, including postpartum depression, anxiety, and inadequate …

Quality of mothering relies on the integrity of multiple physiological and behavioral systems
and on two maternal factors, one proximal and one distal, that have a great impact on how a …

BACKGROUND: Maternal love, which may be the core of maternal behavior, is essential for
the mother-infant attachment relationship and is important for the infant's development and …

Parental care plays an important role in the emotional and cognitive development of the
offspring. Children who have been exposed to abuse or neglect are more likely to develop …

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 …