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Psychology
Cognitive Science

Parenting and plasticity

Profile image of B. LeunerB. Leuner

2010, Trends in Neurosciences

https://doi.org/10.1016/J.TINS.2010.07.003
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Abstract

As any new parent knows, having a baby provides opportunities for enrichment, learning and stress -experiences known to change the adult brain. Yet surprisingly little is known about the effects of maternal experience, and even less about the effects of paternal experience, on neural circuitry not directly involved in parenting. Here we discuss how caregiving and the accompanying experiential and hormonal changes influence the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, brain regions involved in cognition and mood regulation. A better understanding of how parenting impacts the brain is likely to help in devising strategies for treating parental depression, a condition that can have serious cognitive and mental health consequences for children.

Figures (3)
Maternal and paternal experiences also influence brain regions that are known to be either unnecessary for the behaviors directly associated with parenting or only involved in a modulatory way. Among these are effects on brain regions associated with cognition and mood, including the hippocampus and PFC (Figure 1).
Maternal and paternal experiences also influence brain regions that are known to be either unnecessary for the behaviors directly associated with parenting or only involved in a modulatory way. Among these are effects on brain regions associated with cognition and mood, including the hippocampus and PFC (Figure 1).
Figure 1.
Figure 1.
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Figure 2.

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Early parenting predicts hippocampal subregion volume via stress reactivity in childhood
Emma Chad-Friedman

Developmental Psychobiology, 2018

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Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2007

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Behavioral Neuroscience, 2012

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    Molecular Brain, 2013

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    Revista brasileira de psiquiatria (Sao Paulo, Brazil : 1999), 2018

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    Developmental Neuroscience, 2012

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    Impact of parturition on maternal cardiovascular and neuronal integrity in a high risk cohort – a prospective cohort study
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