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AIMS Neuroscience

2025, Volume 12, Issue 4: 614-634. doi: 10.3934/Neuroscience.2025030
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Hormonal and structural transformations in the caregiver's brain: Examining themes in parental neurobiology

  • Department of Biology, Emory University, 1510 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
  • Received: 18 August 2025 Revised: 27 October 2025 Accepted: 12 November 2025 Published: 26 November 2025

  • When becoming a parent, caregivers undergo complex, and sometimes permanent, neurobiological alterations, and this area of neurobiology has been extensively studied for decades. Due to ethical concerns and experimental limitations, the first parental neurobiology experiments were exclusively performed using rodent animal model systems, such as mice, rats, and voles. More recent technological advancements, such as the functional MRI (fMRI) scan, have become widely adopted and led to great insight into the impact of parenting on human neurobiology. In this thematic literature review, we present key studies that provide insight into the relationship of pregnancy and parturition on maternal caregiving behavior and the relationship of postpartum on all parents. First, we examine the relationship of endocrine hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, oxytocin, and testosterone with the neurobiological development of a parent. Next, we describe the significant transformation of subcortical maternal circuit components that occur during pregnancy, and the changes in the volume of grey and white matter generated during the postpartum. These brain structure alterations contribute to the development of parental nurturing behaviors.

    Citation: Elaine K. Feller, Erin N. McGinity, Patrick William Cafferty. Hormonal and structural transformations in the caregiver's brain: Examining themes in parental neurobiology[J]. AIMS Neuroscience, 2025, 12(4): 614-634. doi: 10.3934/Neuroscience.2025030

    Related Papers:

  • When becoming a parent, caregivers undergo complex, and sometimes permanent, neurobiological alterations, and this area of neurobiology has been extensively studied for decades. Due to ethical concerns and experimental limitations, the first parental neurobiology experiments were exclusively performed using rodent animal model systems, such as mice, rats, and voles. More recent technological advancements, such as the functional MRI (fMRI) scan, have become widely adopted and led to great insight into the impact of parenting on human neurobiology. In this thematic literature review, we present key studies that provide insight into the relationship of pregnancy and parturition on maternal caregiving behavior and the relationship of postpartum on all parents. First, we examine the relationship of endocrine hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, oxytocin, and testosterone with the neurobiological development of a parent. Next, we describe the significant transformation of subcortical maternal circuit components that occur during pregnancy, and the changes in the volume of grey and white matter generated during the postpartum. These brain structure alterations contribute to the development of parental nurturing behaviors.



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    Acknowledgments


    The authors received no funding or research grants in the course of research or composition of the manuscript. The authors would like to thank Dr. James K. Rilling in the Emory University Department of Psychology for his helpful feedback provided on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

    Conflict of interest


    The authors declare no conflict of interest.

    Authors' contributions


    E.K.F. and E.N.M. performed the initial literature search and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. P.W.C. provided feedback and supervision, contributed to, and edited the final manuscript. All authors carefully reviewed, provided input, and approved the final manuscript.

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