Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26803528›Full record

ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2016

The influence of motherhood on neural systems for reward processing in low income, minority, young women.

Eydie L Moses-Kolko, Erika E Forbes, Stephanie Stepp, David Fraser, Kate E Keenan, Amanda E Guyer, Henry W Chase, Mary L Phillips, Carlos R Zevallos, Chaohui Guo and 1 more

Open access · greenAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
1.5field-weighted citation impact, top 15% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Psychedelic therapy and postpartum depression: priorities and prospects.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2026
    Review
  2. Article
  3. The maternal reward system in postpartum depression.Archives of women's mental health · 2019
    Review
  4. Review
  5. A Transactional Model of Infant Still-Face Response and Maternal Behavior During the First Year.Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.

Eydie L Moses-KolkoUniversity of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Electronic address: mosesel@upmc.edu.
Erika E ForbesUniversity of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; University of Pittsburgh, Department of Psychology, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Stephanie SteppUniversity of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; University of Pittsburgh, Department of Psychology, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
David FraserChatham University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Kate E KeenanUniversity of Chicago, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Chicago, IL, USA.
Amanda E GuyerUniversity of California, Davis, Department of Human Ecology, Center for Mind and Brain, Davis, CA, USA.
Henry W ChaseUniversity of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Mary L PhillipsUniversity of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Carlos R ZevallosUniversity of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Chaohui GuoUniversity of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Alison E HipwellUniversity of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; University of Pittsburgh, Department of Psychology, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
University of Pittsburgh · USChatham University · USUniversity of California, Davis · USUniversity of Chicago · US

Funding

The Development of Conduct Disorder in GirlsR01MH056630 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · PI LOEBER, ROLF · 1998 to 2012
$18.9M
Changes in brain function during adolescence and risk for depression in girlsR01MH093605 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · PI FORBES, ERIKA E, GUYER, AMANDA E · 2011 to 2015
$2.9M
Parsing the Heterogeneity of Neural Functioning in Postpartum DepressionR01HD067185 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · PI HIPWELL, ALISON E, MOSES-KOLKO, EYDIE L · 2011 to 2015
$2.5M
NICHD NIH HHS HD067185NICHD NIH HHS R01 HD067185NIMH NIH HHS MH056630NIMH NIH HHS MH093605NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH056630NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH093605
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveGiven the association between maternal caregiving behavior and heightened neural reward activity in experimental animal studies, the present study examined whether motherhood in humans positively modulates reward-processing neural circuits, even among mothers exposed to various life stressors and depression.

methodsSubjects were 77 first-time mothers and 126 nulliparous young women from the Pittsburgh Girls Study, a longitudinal study beginning in childhood. Subjects underwent a monetary reward task during functional magnetic resonance imaging in addition to assessment of current depressive symptoms. Life stress was measured by averaging data collected between ages 8-15 years. Using a region-of-interest approach, we conducted hierarchical regression to examine the relationship of psychosocial factors (life stress and current depression) and motherhood with extracted ventral striatal (VST) response to reward anticipation. Whole-brain regression analyses were performed post-hoc to explore non-striatal regions associated with reward anticipation in mothers vs nulliparous women.

resultsAnticipation of monetary reward was associated with increased neural activity in expected regions including caudate, orbitofrontal, occipital, superior and middle frontal cortices. There was no main effect of motherhood nor motherhood-by-psychosocial factor interaction effect on VST response during reward anticipation. Depressive symptoms were associated with increased VST activity across the entire sample. In exploratory whole brain analysis, motherhood was associated with increased somatosensory cortex activity to reward (FWE cluster forming threshold p<0.001).

conclusionsThese findings indicate that motherhood is not associated with reward anticipation-related VST activity nor does motherhood modulate the impact of depression or life stress on VST activity. Future studies are needed to evaluate whether earlier postpartum assessment of reward function, inclusion of mothers with more severe depressive symptoms, and use of reward tasks specific for social reward might reveal an impact of motherhood on reward system activity.

Indexed as

RewardAdolescentAdultChildChild, PreschoolDepressionFemaleHumansLongitudinal StudiesMinority GroupsMothersMotivationNeural PathwaysParentingPovertyStress, PsychologicalDepressionLife stressMotherhoodRewardVentral striatum

Identifiers

PMID26803528
PMCPMC4788565
OpenAlexW2237571919

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.