In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr Maria Muzik and Dr. Katherine Rosenblum about Mom Power, a parenting intervention they developed, and how it impacts parents and the parental brain. Both are Professors in the Departments Psychiatry and Obstetrics & Gynecology, as well as Co-Directors of Zero To Thrive & Women and Infant Mental Health Program at the University of Michigan. We talk about the development of Mom Power, it’s core components and the research...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr Jonny Kohl, Group Leader, State-Dependent Neural Processing Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK. We talk about his new research on how the hormones of pregnancy affect specific neurons in the MPOA that essential for parenting. It’s a fascinating new finding and provides valuable insight into the neuroendocrine factors governing parental care. We also talk about whether or not we should be using reproductively...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr. Pascal Vrticka, Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Essex. We talk about all thing’s attachment and neural synchrony in mother-child and father-child dyads. We also talk about attachment parenting and how our beliefs about parenting can impact how our brain functions. Fascinating! Don’t miss this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited. It will make you rethink about how the parental brain is working...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr. Kristina M. Deligiannidis, MD, Professor, Institute of Behavioral Science, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Director, Women’s Behavioral Health, Zucker Hillside Hospital, Northwell Health, Professor, Psychiatry, Molecular Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynecology, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, USA. We talk about her research on the development of neurosteroid treatments for postpartum...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr. Devaleena Pradhan, Associate Professor of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology and Physiology at Idaho State University, USA. We talk about fatherhood, the neural mechanisms mediating parenting, the origins of parenting behaviors and more. We also talk about her research on parenting in sex-changing fish and what we can learn from them. Don’t miss this episode. It will make you rethink sex/gender and parenting! For more...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr. Tara Chaplin, Associate Professor of Psychology at George Mason University, USA. We talk about parenting, mindfulness, and the parental brain. We also talk about the importance of mindfulness in terms of parenting tweens and teens, how mindfulness helps empower parents to parent with intention (wow!), and her ongoing research in this area. Don’t miss this episode on Mommy Brain Revisited. It will make you want to be more...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr. Robert Froemke, Professor, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Skirball Professor of Genetics, Department of Neuroscience and Physiology at New York University. We talk about oxytocin neurons, learning to parent and alloparenting. We also talk about the importance of experience with offspring, making mistakes, and ‘mouse midwifery’. Don’t miss this episode on Mommy Brain. So interesting! Download the publication in...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Valerie Miller, a PhD candidate in Anthropology at Purdue University. We talk about her recent research on ‘Mommy Brain’ in the USA and the importance of studying how moms feel and the cultural factors that can influence mommy brain and motherhood.  You won't want to miss this episode!   Download the publication here: https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/etho.12381 Citation: Valerie Miller, Marcy Price-Crist....

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr. Elseline Hoekzema, Assistant Professor, Adult Psychiatry and Amsterdam Neuroscience at Amsterdam University Medical Centers. We talk about her recent research published Nature Communications on how pregnancy impacts brain structure and function. This is a fascinating area of research! Download the publication here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33884-8 For more information about Dr. Hoekzema see:...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I read our viewpoint in JAMA Neurology titled "It's time to rebrand 'Mommy Brain'" published Feb 6, 2023 and authored by Dr Clare McCormack, Dr Bridget Callaghan and myself.  We also talk about how we are rebranding 'Mommy Brain'.  For the print version of the viewpoint see:  https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/article-abstract/2801288 Citation: McCormack C, Callaghan BL, Pawluski JL. It’s Time to Rebrand “Mommy Brain”. JAMA Neurol....

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr Margaret Bublitz, a Clinical Psychologist and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, and Medicine, in the Department of Psychiatry, at the Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University.  We talk about her research on how child maltreatment early in life can modify the maternal brain in human mothers. We also talk about the need to support mothers, in general, and to talk more about the reality of motherhood. Such an...

On this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited talk with Emma Jane Unsworth, British writer and bestselling author. We talk about her memoir After the Storm: Postnatal Depression and the Utter Weirdness of New Motherhood and what she did to prepare for her second pregnancy and postpartum experience.  This podcast episode is part of a collaboration with InSPIre the Mind – a digital magazine – where we have been doing a series on Maternal Mental Health. Listen to the podcast, read the book and check...

On this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Prof Carmine Pariante, a psychiatrist and professor at King's College London. This episode is part of a collaboration with InSPIre the Mind – a digital magazine – where we are doing a series of blogs on maternal mental illness. Over the next month check out stories from the series at : https://www.inspirethemind.org/our-series In this episode we talk about the different mental illnesses that can occur during the perinatal period, the...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr. Amanda Kentner a Full Professor at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in the USA. We talk about her recent research published at eNeuro on the important role that enrichment can play in parenting and development. Don’t miss this episode on cutting edge research in behavioral neuroscience. So interesting! Download the publication here: https://www.eneuro.org/content/9/4/ENEURO.0148-22.2022 For more information about...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr. Bridget Callaghan, an Assistant Professor at UCLA, about recent research she’s done on memory during pregnancy. Love this research! We talk about “baby brain”, hippocampal-dependent memory changes during pregnancy – what the data shows, how we need to think about memory and motherhood, and where research needs to go to understand memory changes during the perinatal period in birthing and non-birthing parents. For more about her...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr. Ruth Feldman, the Simms-Mann Professor of Developmental Social Neuroscience at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzlia with joint appointment at Yale Child Study Center. We talk about her recent research on neural synchrony and how maternal cues can aid in neural synchrony between strangers and infants. We also talk about the importance of understanding brain changes with perinatal mental illness and her ongoing research on the...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr. James Rilling a Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University in the USA. We talk about his research on brain changes in human fathers. So cool! We also talk the interplay between oxytocin, testosterone, dad brain changes as well as tradeoffs between parenting and mating and more! Don’t miss this episode and share it with a dad near you. For more information...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr. Siobhain O’Mahony a Senior Lecturer at University College Cork, Ireland. We talk about the the Brain-Gut axis (or axes) and the role of the gut microbiome in pregnancy and postpartum. We also talk about the role that stress can play on this system. She updates us on how birth mode may affect the developing microbiome in infants - something that's been in the news a lot the past few years - and we talk about practical ways to mind our...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr. Ann-Marie de Lange a Maitre-Assistant Ambizione FNS (Assistant Professor) at the Centre for Research in Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, l'Universite de Lausanne, Switzerland. We talk about her research on motherhood and brain-aging in middle aged women. We also talk about the importance of understanding the female brain throughout life, not only in the context of motherhood but also with menopause and aging. And, no,...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr. Kimberly D'Anna-Hernandez an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Marquette University in the USA. We talk about her research on sociocultural stressors and maternal mental health in Latinx populations in the US. We talk about the impact of systemic racism and microaggressions on pre- and post-natal maternal mental health and how these factors affect physiological health. We also talk about how she is using...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr. Helena Rutherford an Assistant Professor at the Yale Child Study Center in the USA. We talk about her research using EEG (brain waves) to understand brain changes in pregnancy, how they predict postpartum outcomes, the role of reproductive experience on the brain and how dad's brain changes too. We also talk about the importance of understanding the parental brain in order to improve parenting outcomes. Don’t miss this episode! For more...

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr. Victoria Leong an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and an Affiliated Lecturer at University of Cambridge in England. We talk about her research on neural synchrony between mother and child in relation to cognition and emotion. We also talk about the importance of understanding the parental and infant brain in the context of social interactions and the environment – outside of the lab....

In this episode of Mommy Brain Revisited I talk with Dr Katherine M. Sharkey, an Associate Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry & Human Behavior at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University in the USA. We talk about her research on sleep in motherhood and how it is related to maternal mood disorders and breastfeeding. She also does some myth busting: Is poor sleep in pregnancy preparing you for the postpartum? Should you sleep when baby sleeps? Are new dads sleeping more? We talk a...