Table 1.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Studies of Mothers Highlighting Contrasting Findings in Healthy Mothers Versus Those With Affective Symptoms, Substance Use, or Characteristics Relating to Impaired Attachment Processes.
| Author (year) (reference) | N; Group | Age of infants/ children |
fMRI paradigm | Findings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salience/fear network | ||||
| Healthy mothers | ||||
| Seifritz et al. (2003) (40) | 20, mothers versus women without children |
< 3 years | Infant cries and laughter versus control sound |
↑ Amygdala, middle cingulate cortex and insula activity in mothers versus women without children |
| Bartels and Zeki (2004) (45) | 19, mothers | 9 months to 6 years |
Face pictures of own versus unknown/familiar child; comparison of maternal versus romantic love |
↑ Insula and dACC activity to own child, which overlapped regions active to romantic others |
| Ranote et al. (2004) (101) | 10, mothers | 4–8 months | Video of own versus other infant |
↑ Amygdala activation to own infant |
| Swain et al. (2008) (42) | 12, vaginal versus caesarean section deliveries |
2–4 weeks | infantcry (own versus other) | ↑ Amygdala activity to infant cry in women with vaginal versus caesarean section deliveries |
| Lenzi et al. (2009) (114) | 16, primiparous mothers |
6–12 months | Viewing and imitating faces of own versus other child |
↑ Insula, amygdala and inferior frontal gyrus activity associated with increased maternal empathy |
| Strathearn et al. (2013) | 39, primiparous mothers |
~11 months | Child faces (own versus other) | ↑ Amygdala activity to own versus other infant faces |
| Ho et al. (2014) (216) | 14, mothers | ~4 years | Parenting decision-making task |
↑ vACC to +ve versus −ve infant feedback. Hypothalamus-septa coupling during −ve feedback inversely related to cortiso reactivity |
| Mothers with affective symptoms, substance use or impaired infant interaction | ||||
| Silverman et al. (2007) (49) | 8, postpartum mothers with EPDS > 12 or <6 |
7–8 weeks | Negative emotional words | ↓ Amygdala but ↑ insula activity to negative words in women with EPDS > 12 |
| Moses-Kolko et al. (2010) (50) | 30, PPD versus HC | 8–10 weeks | Fear/threat adult faces | ↓ DMPFC activity and amygdala- DMPFC connectivity in PPD |
| ↓ Amygdala activity associated with postpartum depression severity |
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| Laurent & Ablow (2012) (43) | 22, PDD versus HC | 18 months | infantcry (own versus other) | ↓ dACC and insula activity in PPD |
| Barrett et al. (2012) (39) | 22, mothers, varied affective symptoms |
~3 months | Infant faces (own versus other), with affect rating task |
↓ Amygdala activation to positive own infant faces associated with more depression (EPDS) and anxiety symptoms (STAI-trait) |
| Schechter et al. (2012) (61) | 20, IPV-PTSD versus control |
12–42 months | Videos of child stress during separation (own versus other child) |
↑ Insula and ↓ mPFC activity to child separation videos that correlated with self-reported stress |
| Moser et al. (2013) (63) | 20, IPV-PTSD | 12–42 months | Videos of child stress with separation (own versus other child) |
↓ Cingulate, hippocampus and ↑ DLPFC activity to child separation videos associated with greater dissociative symptoms |
| Landi et al. (2011) (128) | 54, substance using versus non-using postpartum mothers |
1–3 months | Infant sad faces, low distress cries (all other infants) |
↓ Amygdala, parahippocampus, insula, lateral PFC, activity in substance users |
| Musser et al. (2012) (157) | 22, primiparous, varied maternal sensitivity |
18 months | infantcry (own versus other versus control sounds) |
↓ IFG and ↑ insula activity associated with reduced maternal sensitivity and increased maternal intrusiveness |
| Laurent et al. (2012) (156) | 22, primiparous mothers |
15–18 months | infantcry (own versus control sound) |
↑ Parahippocampus/amygdala and insula activity to cry in mothers of insecurely-attached infants |
| Author (year) (reference) | N; Group | Age of infants/ children |
Paradigm, variable | Regional findings |
| Executive network | ||||
| Healthy postpartum versus menstruating nonpostpartum women | ||||
| Bannbers et al. (2013) (76) | 26; postpartum versus menstruating women |
48 h; 4–7 weeks | Go/NoGo task | ↓ VLPFC, precentral gyrus, and dACC at later versus early postpartum timepoints and relative to nonpostpartum women |
| Reward/social attachment network | ||||
| Healthy mothers | ||||
| Lorberbaum et al. (2002) (41) | 10, mothers | 1–2 months | infantcry (other) versus white noise versus baseline rest |
↑ Medial thalamus, medial PFC, right OFC to infant cry |
| Bartels and Zeki (2004) (45) | 19, mothers | 9 months–6 years | Face pictures of own versus unknown/familiar child |
↑ Striatum, thalamus, PAG to own child |
| Leibenluft et al. (2004) (44) | 7, mothers | 5–12 years | Child faces (own versus familiar/unfamiliar other) |
↑ Mentalising circuitry (DMPFC, MPFC, PCC, TPJ, pSTS) to own child > familiar/unknown child |
| Noriuchi et al. (2008) (37) | 13, mothers | 15–20 months | Video clips own versus other infant |
↑ OFC, periaqueductal gray, putamen to own infant |
| Strathearn et at. (2008) (38) | 26, primiparous mothers |
7–10 months | Child happy faces (own versus other) |
↑ Putamen, SN, thalamus, amygdala to own versus other faces |
| Swain et al. (2008) (42) | 12, vaginal versus caesarean section deliveries (VD) |
2–4 weeks | infantcry (own versus other) | ↑ SFG, caudate and thalamus to infant cry in women with vaginal versus caesarean section deliveries. Correlation of parental preoccupation with lenticular nucleus activation |
| Kim et al. (2011) (48) | 17, breast- versus formula-feeding mothers |
2–4 weeks and 3–4 months |
infantcry (own versus other) | ↑ SFG, insula, precuneus, striatum, and amygdala activity to own infant cry in breast- versus formula-feeding mothers |
| ↑ Maternal sensitivity associated with increased SFG and amygdala activity |
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| Mothers with affective symptom, impaired infant interaction, or low maternal care received, insecure attachment | ||||
| Silverman et al. (2007) (49) | 8, postpartum mothers with EPDS > 12 or <6 |
7–8 weeks | Positive emotional words | ↓ Striatum to positive words in women with EPDS > 12 |
| Strathearn et al. (2009) (46) | 30, primiparous mothers |
~11 months | Child happy faces (own versus other) |
↓ VST, OFC, mPFC activity to faces in mothers without secure attachment |
| Kim et al. (2010) (53) | 26, mothers | 2–4 weeks | infantcry (other versus control sound) |
↓ MFG, STS and fusiform gyrus to infant cry for women with a history of lower maternal care received |
| Moses-Kolko et al. (2011) (105) |
24, PPD versus HC | 8–10 weeks | Monetary reward task | ↓ Ventral striatal duration of reward-related response in PPD |
| Laurent & Ablow (2011) (43) | 22, PDD versus HC | 18 months | infantcry (own versus control sound) |
↓ Thalamus, caudate, OFC, SFG in PPD, and in association with higher CESD scores |
| Atzil et al. (2011) (125) | 23, mothers | 4–6 months | Mother–infant interaction videos (self versus other mother–infant dyad) |
↑ Striatal activity associated with greater mother–infant behavioral synchrony |
| Default mode network | ||||
| Depressed versus healthy mothers | ||||
| Xiao-juan et al. (2011) (147) | 21, PPD versus HC | Within 16 weeks | Resting state | ↑ PCC index of nearest neighbor connectivity (ReHo) in PPD |
| Chase et al. (2013) (144) | 37, PPD versus HC | 10 weeks | Resting state | ↓ PCC-amygdala connectivity in PPD |
| Deligiannidis et al. (2013) (146) |
17, PPD versus HC | 9 weeks | Resting state | ↓ Connectivity within corticolimbic circuits including the default mode network |
CESD, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale; dACC, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex; DMPFC, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex; EPDS, Edinburgh Postnatal Scale for Depression; HC, healthy controls; IFG, inferior frontal gyrus; IPV-PTSD, interpersonal violence-related post-traumatic stress disorder; MPFC, medial prefrontal cortex; OFC, orbitofrontal cortex; OT, oxytocin; PAG, periaqueductal gray; PCC, posterior cingulate cortex; PPD, postpartum depression; pSTS, posterior superior temporal sulcus; ReHo, regional homogeneity or synchronisation between time series of a voxel with that of its nearest neighbors; SFG, superior frontal gyrus; SN, substantia nigra; STAI, Speilberger State Trait Anxiety Inventory; TPJ, temporal–parietal junction; VE, valence. References are listed chronologically. In cases where references have findings that relate to multiple networks, such references have been categorised according to the most relevant network and, in some cases, are listed in two categories if more than one network is adequately assessed.