Parental brain

Parental experience, as well as changing hormone levels during pregnancy and postpartum, cause changes in the parental brain. Displaying maternal sensitivity towards infant cues, processing those cues and being motivated to engage socially with her infant and attend to the infant's needs in any context could be described as mothering behavior and is regulated by many systems in the maternal brain. Research has shown that hormones such as oxytocin, prolactin, estradiol and progesterone are essential for the onset and the maintenance of maternal behavior in rats, and other mammals as well. Mothering behavior has also been classified within the basic drives (sexual desire, hunger and thirst, fear, power/dominance etc.).

Less is known about the paternal brain, but changes in the father's brain occur alongside the mother. Research on this topic is continuing to expand as more researchers examine fathers. Many of the brain regions and networks responsible for parental behavior are responsible for parental behavior in human fathers after having a child. Changes in hormones, brain activation and brain structure (mainly changes in gray matter) are seen in both human mothers and fathers, with hormonal changes beginning in both males and females before the birth of their children, with changes continuing to develop after the birth of children.