ArticlePloS one2015
Emotion Reactivity Is Increased 4-6 Weeks Postpartum in Healthy Women: A Longitudinal fMRI Study.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- Virtual reality enhanced mindfulness and yoga intervention for postpartum depression and anxiety in the post COVID era.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- GABAergic Neuroactive Steroids and Network States: Relevance to Peripartum Depression.Biological psychiatry · 2026Review
- Altered functional connectivity of emotional circuits and default mode network in postpartum women: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Article
- Maternal History of Childhood Maltreatment and Brain Responses to Infant Cues Across the Postpartum Period.Child maltreatment · 2024Article
- Mapping the effects of pregnancy on resting state brain activity, white matter microstructure, neural metabolite concentrations and grey matter architecture.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Altered functional connectivity density and couplings in postpartum depression with and without anxiety.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2022Article
- Maternal socioeconomic disadvantage, neural function during volitional emotion regulation, and parenting.Social neuroscience · 2022Article
- Less can be more: Fine tuning the maternal brain.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2022Review
- Gray matter increases within subregions of the hippocampal complex after pregnancy.Brain imaging and behavior · 2021Article
- Maternal perinatal anxiety and neural responding to infant affective signals: Insights, challenges, and a road map for neuroimaging research.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2021Review
- Postpartum Stress and Neural Regulation of Emotion among First-Time Mothers.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2021Article
- Mothers' neural response to valenced infant interactions predicts postpartum depression and anxiety.PloS one · 2021Article
- Determinants of Adherence to National Infant Feeding Guidelines by Black Mothers Living with HIV.Ethnicity & disease · 2021Article
- Characterizing the Brain Structural Adaptations Across the Motherhood Transition.Frontiers in global women's health · 2021Review
- Advancing preventive interventions for pregnant women who are opioid using via the integration of addiction and mental health research.Current addiction reports · 2020Article
- Brain plasticity in pregnancy and the postpartum period: links to maternal caregiving and mental health.Archives of women's mental health · 2019Article
- Potential Brain Age Reversal after Pregnancy: Younger Brains at 4-6 Weeks Postpartum.Neuroscience · 2018Article
- Disrupted Spontaneous Neural Activity Related to Cognitive Impairment in Postpartum Women.Frontiers in psychology · 2018Article
- Sex Hormones and Processing of Facial Expressions of Emotion: A Systematic Literature Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Marked endocrine alterations occur after delivery. Most women cope well with these changes, but the postpartum period is associated with an increased risk of depressive episodes. Previous studies of emotion processing have focused on maternal-infant bonding or postpartum depression (PPD), and longitudinal studies of the neural correlates of emotion processing throughout the postpartum period in healthy women are lacking. In this study, 13 women, without signs of post partum depression, underwent fMRI with an emotional face matching task and completed the MADRS-S, STAI-S, and EPDS within 48 h (early postpartum) and 4-6 weeks after delivery (late postpartum). Also, data from a previous study including 15 naturally cycling controls assessed in the luteal and follicular phase of the menstrual cycle was used. Women had lower reactivity in insula, middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in the early as compared to the late postpartum assessment. Insular reactivity was positively correlated with anxiety in the early postpartum period and with depressive symptoms late postpartum. Reactivity in insula and IFG were greater in postpartum women than in non-pregnant control subjects. Brain reactivity was not correlated with serum estradiol or progesterone levels. Increased reactivity in the insula, IFG, and MFG may reflect normal postpartum adaptation, but correlation with self-rated symptoms of depression and anxiety in these otherwise healthy postpartum women, may also suggest that these changes place susceptible women at increased risk of PPD. These findings contribute to our understanding of the neurobiological aspects of the postpartum period, which might shed light on the mechanisms underlying affective puerperal disorders, such as PPD.
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