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Maternal brain resting-state connectivity in the postpartum period.

ABSTRACT: In the postpartum period, the maternal brain experiences both structural and functional plasticity. Although we have a growing understanding of the responses of the human maternal brain to infant stimuli, little is known about the intrinsic connectivity among those regions during the postpartum months. Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) provides a measure of the functional architecture of the brain based upon intrinsic functional connectivity (ie, the temporal correlation in blood oxygenation level dependent signal when the brain is not engaged in a specific task). In the present study, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine how later postpartum months are associated with rsFC and maternal behaviours. We recruited a sample of 47 socioeconomically diverse first-time mothers with singleton pregnancies. Because the amygdala has been shown to play a critical role in maternal behaviours in the postpartum period, this was chosen as the seed for a seed-based correlation analysis. For the left amygdala, later postpartum months were associated with greater connectivity with the anterior cingulate gyrus, left nucleus accumbens, right caudate and left cerebellum (P < 0.05, false discovery rate corrected). Furthermore, in an exploratory analysis, we observed indications that rsFC between the left amygdala and left nucleus accumbens was positively associated with maternal structuring during a mother child-interaction. In addition, later postpartum months were associated with greater connectivity between the right amygdala and the bilateral caudate and right putamen. Overall, we provide evidence of relationships between postpartum months and rsFC in the regions involved in salience detection and regions involved in maternal motivation. Greater connectivity between the amygdala and nucleus accumbens may play a role in positive maternal behaviours.

SUBMITTER: Dufford AJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6874214 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Maternal brain resting-state connectivity in the postpartum period.

Dufford Alexander J AJ Erhart Andrew A Kim Pilyoung P

Journal of neuroendocrinology 20190614 9

In the postpartum period, the maternal brain experiences both structural and functional plasticity. Although we have a growing understanding of the responses of the human maternal brain to infant stimuli, little is known about the intrinsic connectivity among those regions during the postpartum months. Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) provides a measure of the functional architecture of the brain based upon intrinsic functional connectivity (ie, the temporal correlation in blood oxyg ...[more]

PMID: 31106452

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Project description:Numerous studies have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to characterize functional connectivity between cortical regions by analyzing correlations in blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signals in a resting state. However, to date, there have been only a handful of studies reporting resting state BOLD signals in white matter. Nonetheless, a growing number of reports has emerged in recent years suggesting white matter BOLD signals can be reliably detected, though their biophysical origins remain unclear. Moreover, recent studies have identified robust correlations in a resting state between signals from cortex and specific white matter tracts. In order to further validate and interpret these findings, we studied a non-human primate model to investigate resting-state connectivity patterns between parcellated cortical volumes and specific white matter bundles. Our results show that resting-state connectivity patterns between white and gray matter structures are not randomly distributed but share notable similarities with diffusion- and histology-derived anatomic connectivities. This suggests that resting-state BOLD correlations between white matter fiber tracts and the gray matter regions to which they connect are directly related to the anatomic arrangement and density of WM fibers. We also measured how different levels of baseline neural activity, induced by varying levels of anesthesia, modulate these patterns. As anesthesia levels were raised, we observed weakened correlation coefficients between specific white matter tracts and gray matter regions while key features of the connectivity pattern remained similar. Overall, results from this study provide further evidence that neural activity is detectable by BOLD fMRI in both gray and white matter throughout the resting brain. The combined use of gray and white matter functional connectivity could also offer refined full-scale functional parcellation of the entire brain to characterize its functional architecture.

Dataset Information

Maternal brain resting-state connectivity in the postpartum period.

Publications

Maternal brain resting-state connectivity in the postpartum period.

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