ArticleScientific reports2024
Enduring maternal brain changes and their role in mediating motherhood's impact on well-being.
Article in Scientific reports, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 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
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Traces of Parenthood but Not Pregnancy Loss in UK Biobank Structural Brain MRI Data.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Hormonal and structural transformations in the caregiver's brain: Examining themes in parental neurobiology.AIMS neuroscience · 2025Review
- Delivery of PAMAM dendrimers and dendriplexes across natural barriers (blood-brain barrier and placental barrier) in healthy pregnant mice.Discover nano · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Parenthood, particularly motherhood, is known to impact the structure and function of the brain in the short term, but the long-term effects of parenthood and their impacts on well-being are still poorly understood. This study explores the potential longer-term associations between parenthood and the brain, parenthood and well-being, and the potential role of brain modifications in influencing mothers' well-being. Using data from the UK Biobank, which includes brain imaging information from individuals aged 45-82 at the MRI scanning, we discovered differences in brain structure between mothers and non-mothers, with mothers exhibiting widely distributed higher gray matter density, particularly strong in frontal and occipital regions. No brain changes were observed in fathers. Parents reported a higher sense of life's meaning compared to their childless counterparts. Gray matter changes did not mediate the relationship between motherhood and well-being. This suggests that the alterations in gray matter associated with motherhood do not play a deterministic role in shaping long-term changes in well-being.
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Registered trials
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