Research shows that a woman’s brain and body undergo drastic changes to support her transition to parenthood during the perinatal period. The presence of this plasticity suggests that mothers’ brains may be changed by their experiences. Exposure to severe stress may disrupt adaptive changes in the maternal brain and further impact the neural circuits of stress regulation and maternal motivation. Emerging literature of human mothers provides evidence that stressful experience, whether from the past or present environment, is associated with altered responses to infant cues in brain circuits that support maternal motivation, emotion regulation, and empathy. Interventions that reduce stress levels in mothers may reverse the negative impact of stress exposure on the maternal brain. Finally, outstanding questions regarding the timing, chronicity, types, and severity of stress exposure, as well as study design to identify the causal impact of stress, and the role of race/ethnicity are discussed.

中文翻译：

---

压力如何影响大脑对母性的适应


研究表明，女性的大脑和身体会发生巨大的变化，以支持她在围产期过渡到为人父母的阶段。这种可塑性的存在表明，母亲的大脑可能会因其经历而改变。暴露于严重压力可能会扰乱母亲大脑的适应性变化，并进一步影响压力调节和母亲动机的神经回路。人类母亲的新兴文献提供的证据表明，压力经历，无论是来自过去还是现在的环境，都与支持母亲动机、情绪调节和同理心的大脑回路中婴儿线索的反应改变有关。降低母亲压力水平的干预措施可能会扭转压力暴露对母亲大脑的负面影响。最后，讨论了有关压力暴露的时间、长期性、类型和严重程度的突出问题，以及确定压力因果影响的研究设计，以及种族/民族的作用。