SAN DIEGO — Neuroscientific research shows that parenthood transforms not only the lives and behaviors of parents, but also their brains. These findings will be presented at Neuroscience 2025, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.
Approximately 140 million women give birth each year, according to the World Health Organization. Human and animal studies demonstrate that the transition to parenthood involves hormonal shifts and neural adaptations that can change the structure and function of a person’s brain. Importantly, mothers and fathers alike experience neurobiological changes that support caregiving. Neuroscientific studies of how parenthood changes the brain are yielding insights that can inform clinical practice, perinatal care and policies supporting parental well-being and child development.
Today’s new findings show that:
- The assistance of experienced mouse mothers during childbirth increases maternal and pup survival for female mice struggling to give birth. (Robert C. Froemke, New York University Grossman School of Medicine)
- In humans, early motherhood is marked by short-term changes in brain connectivity, especially in regions involved in social cognition, memory, and emotional regulation. (Camila Servin-Barthet, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
- Activation of a calcium-ion channel in brain cells in the hypothalamus increases caregiving behavior in male mice during fatherhood. (Yongxiang Li, University of South Florida)
“There are few things as universal as having parents,” says Bianca Jones Marlin, PhD, assistant professor at the Zuckerman Institute at Columbia University and moderator of the press conference. “These studies explore different aspects of parenting, but they all demonstrate that our biology as mammals sets us up well to care for offspring.”
For complete access to Neuroscience 2025 in-person and online, request media credentials. This research was supported by national funding agencies including the National Institutes of Health and private funding organizations.
Sunday, November 16, 2025
11 a.m.–noon PST
San Diego Convention Center, Room 15A, and online for registered media
Parenting Press Conference Summary
- Parenthood remodels the brains of both mothers and fathers to support adaptations for giving birth and nurturing a new infant.
- Two studies in rodents and one in humans show that parents undergo significant neurobiological and hormonal changes that profoundly affect behavior.
Mouse midwives: behavioral mechanisms that greatly improve maternal-infant survival during difficult parturition
Robert Froemke, robert.froemke@med.nyu.edu, Abstract PSTR398.01
- Maternal and infant mortality can be shockingly high in mammals, but both can benefit from the presence of experienced adults.
- First-time pregnant mice lacking oxytocin receptors were housed singly, with an experienced mouse mother with oxytocin receptors, or with other male or female mice.
- Solitary mice lacking oxytocin receptors had low survival rates and 0% pup survival. But when co-housed with another experienced female, the experienced mouse performed ‘midwife’ behaviors including assisting in labor by extracting stuck pups with their mouth or paws, cleaning newborn pups and eating the placenta — increasing both maternal and pup survival to more than 90% and decreasing labor time.
- While males and non-experienced females increased maternal survival to 50%, they did not increase pup survival.
Unraveling changes in the brain’s connectome during the transition to motherhood
Camila Servin-Barthet, Camille.Servin@uab.cat, Abstract PSTR030.19
- Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine how the transition to motherhood changes the white matter pathways that enable communication between brain regions.
- Brain scans of non-mothers were compared to those from first-time mothers at three time points: pre-conception, one month postpartum and six months postpartum.
- At one month postpartum, mothers showed changes in white matter pathways connecting brain regions involved in social cognition, memory, and emotional regulation. These changes normalized at six months postpartum.
- The results emphasize the plasticity of the maternal brain.
Experience-dependent Trpc5 expression in MPOA Esr1 neurons governs parental behavior in male mice
Yongxiang Li, Yongxiangli@usf.edu, Abstract PSTR398.27
- Male mice shift from attacking or ignoring pups to retrieving pups (a caregiving behavior) after becoming fathers, but the mechanism behind this behavioral change wasn’t understood.
- Compared to virgin males, mouse fathers show increased activity of the Transient Receptor Potential Channel 5 (Trpc5) in estrogen receptor α (Esr1)-expressing nerve cells in the medial preoptic area of the hypothalamus.
- Deletion of Trpc5 in Esr1 nerve cells led to a decrease in pup retrieval in fathers. Conversely, increasing Trpc5 expression in Esr1 nerve cells of virgin males caused them to be less aggressive and more responsive toward pups.
- The findings demonstrate how activity in specific brain cells shifts during fatherhood to regulate paternal behavior.
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The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is an organization of nearly 30,000 basic scientists and clinicians who study the brain and the nervous system