ArticleInfant mental health journal2026
Emotional-cognitive differences during pregnancy: Adaptations for motherhood.
Article in Infant mental health journal, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 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
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.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Salivary cortisol reactivity to stress in pregnancy: A scoping review.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Emotional-cognitive differences during pregnancy: Adaptations for motherhood.Infant mental health journal · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Emerging research suggests that unique adaptations in emotional cognition prepare pregnant women for motherhood. This study compared emotional-cognitive responses to infant stimuli in 44 pregnant and 34 non-pregnant Danish participants and explored associations with postpartum outcomes in pregnant participants. Emotional-cognitive responses included facial expressions, skin conductance responses, visual attention, and emotional ratings of multi-modal infant stimuli, including virtual reality. Postpartum outcomes were assessed with questionnaires covering maternal well-being, bonding, reflective functioning, and emotional responses during their own infant cries. Pregnant participants exhibited higher skin conductance responses, more positive facial expressions, and less negative self-reported emotional reactions to infant stimuli compared to non-pregnant participants, with no differences in visual attention. More positive facial expressions to infant faces and vocalizations among pregnant may reflect an adaptive maternal positivity bias, because it correlated with better maternal bonding to their own infant at six months postpartum. Limitations include the cross-sectional design, which makes it difficult to determine whether group differences are pregnancy-driven adaptations, as opposed to findings from alternative longitudinal designs. Nevertheless, the observed differences and positive associations with maternal outcomes are consistent with previous studies, suggesting that pregnancy involves emotional-cognitive adaptations that support the transition to motherhood.
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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.