[Neural mechanisms of attachment behaviors and pregnancy].
Functional neuroimage techniques show how certain brain areas are activated, while others become silent, when a mother sees her child or hears his/her voice. This is the neural correlate of the emotion, which the presence of her child generates, under diverse circumstances, in the mother. Brain is organised to mediate the complex maternal behaviour. For that, gene expression is orchestrated by different hormonal and neurochemicals factors of pregnancy. Maternal behaviors might be reasonably well characterized in terms of cognitive-emotional interactions and brain amygdala function is their cognitive-emotional connector hub.
Departamento de Anatomía, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain. josemanuel.gimenezamaya@uam.es
José Manuel
JM
Giménez Amaya
D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002409:Cathexis; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008032:Limbic System / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000502:physiology; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D051381:Rats; D014667:Vasopressins / Q000502:physiology
D014667:Vasopressins; D010121:Oxytocin