Motherhood and theory of mind: increased activation in the posterior cingulate cortex and insulae.

ABSTRACT: Despite growing evidence on effects of parenthood on social understanding, little is known about the influence of parenthood on theory of mind (ToM), the capacity to infer mental and affective states of others. It is also unclear whether any possible effects of parenthood on ToM would generalise to inferring states of adults or are specific to children. We investigated neural activation in mothers and women without children while they predicted action intentions from child and adult faces. Region-of-interest analyses showed stronger activation in mothers in the bilateral posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus (ToM-related areas) and insulae (emotion-related areas). Whole-brain analyses revealed that mothers compared to non-mothers more strongly activated areas including the left angular gyr

SUBMITTER: Plank IS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9071419 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature