Greater brain response to emotional expressions of their own children in mothers of preterm infants: an fMRI study

Objective: The birth of a preterm infant and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit hospitalization constitute a potentially traumatic experience for mothers. Although behavioral studies investigated the parenting stress in preterm mothers, no study focused on the underlying neural mechanisms. We examined the effect of preterm births in mothers, by comparing brain activation in mothers of preterm and full-term infants. Study Design: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure the cerebral response of 10 first-time mothers of preterm infants (gestational age