ReviewHormones and behavior2016
Neural mechanisms of mother-infant bonding and pair bonding: Similarities, differences, and broader implications.
Review in Hormones and behavior, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 170 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
170 citing papers in PubMed, 359 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trial
- Early Parenting Intervention Effects on Brain Responses to Maternal Cues Among High-Risk Children.The American journal of psychiatry · 2020Trial
- Oxytocin increases eye-gaze towards novel social and non-social stimuli.Social neuroscience · 2019Trial
- How the brain codes intimacy: The neurobiological substrates of romantic touch.Human brain mapping · 2017Trial
- A corticohypothalamic circuit that mediates maternal awakening to pup cries.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- Stress, needs, and behaviour: understanding chronic stress in pet domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) from the prism of needs.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Postpartum adversity in rats creates a hypervigilant maternal state through selective salience-circuit recruitment.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Complementary influences of noradrenaline and dopamine in orchestrating a motivated social behavior.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2026Review
- Prenatal diazepam exposure impairs maternal caregiving behaviors in rats: Roles of GABAARα1 downregulation, serotonin depletion, and corticosterone dysregulation.Toxicology reports · 2026Article
- Adolescent social isolation creates a latent vulnerability in maternal care with intergenerational social consequences, rescued by experienced mothers.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Loss aversion and the limits of breastfeeding promotion: a behavioral policy perspective.International breastfeeding journal · 2026Article
- Increase in Comforting Behavior (Allogrooming) During Social Interaction in Male Mice Deficient for theBrain sciences · 2026Article
- Romantic love as regulatory co-option of maternal-bonding circuitry: a testable genetic account.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Infant 6-Month Psychophysiology During Interaction With Mother Is Differentiated by 12-Month Attachment Quality.Developmental psychobiology · 2025Article
- Psilocybin during the postpartum period induces long-lasting adverse effects in both mothers and offspring.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Neuroendocrine Regulation and Neural Circuitry of Parenthood: Integrating Neuropeptides, Brain Receptors, and Maternal Behavior.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Ontogenic, Immunological, and Behavioral Changes of Crack Cocaine Exposure During the Gestational Period.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Article
- Experience-dependent maternal defense behavior mediated by profrontal cortical projections to the medial preoptic area in mice.Nature communications · 2025Article
- My Baby Versus the World: Fathers' Neural Processing of Own-Infant, Unfamiliar-Infant, and Romantic Partner Stimuli.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Activation of the tail of the ventral tegmental area in response to pup predicting cues in maternal rats.Brain structure & function · 2025Article
110 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
This article is part of a Special Issue "Parental Care". Mother-infant bonding is a characteristic of virtually all mammals. The maternal neural system may have provided the scaffold upon which other types of social bonds in mammals have been built. For example, most mammals exhibit a polygamous mating system, but monogamy and pair bonding between mating partners occur in ~5% of mammalian species. In mammals, it is plausible that the neural mechanisms that promote mother-infant bonding have been modified by natural selection to establish the capacity to develop a selective bond with a mate during the evolution of monogamous mating strategies. Here we compare the details of the neural mechanisms that promote mother-infant bonding in rats and other mammals with those that underpin pair bond formation in the monogamous prairie vole. Although details remain to be resolved, remarkable similarities and a few differences between the mechanisms underlying these two types of bond formation are revealed. For example, amygdala and nucleus accumbens-ventral pallidum (NA-VP) circuits are involved in both types of bond formation, and dopamine and oxytocin actions within NA appear to promote the synaptic plasticity that allows either infant or mating partner stimuli to persistently activate NA-VP attraction circuits, leading to an enduring social attraction and bonding. Further, although the medial preoptic area is essential for maternal behavior, its role in pair bonding remains to be determined. Our review concludes by examining the broader implications of this comparative analysis, and evidence is provided that the maternal care system may have also provided the basic neural foundation for other types of strong social relationships, beyond pair bonding, in mammals, including humans.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.