Maternology

Abstract

Neonates are potent incentive stimuli who regulate the mother's ability and motivation to engage in costly care-taking activities during a most vulnerable period of their early life. Laboratory animal studies as well as functional neuroimaging in human mothers have shown that the medial preoptic area of the hypothalamus and its projections to the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system regulate the motivational aspects of maternal behavior. Peripartum hormonal changes acting in these brain areas enhance the reinforcing value of the newborns and promote in the mother the highly motivated behavior observed immediately after parturition. A better understanding of the neural mechanisms that regulate the motivational aspects of maternal behavior can help to increase awareness of the importance of the early maternal/parental-infant interaction as well as to identify possible biological factors that underlie anomalies in human maternal behavior.