Parenthood: The Keystone. The Parental Brain, Development, and Salutogenesis Parental Functioning as the Conductor of Adult Health Outcomes

Titolo Rivista PNEI REVIEW
Autori/Curatori Rossana Terni
Pubblicazione Online First 30/09/2026 Fascicolo 2026/Online First
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 15 P. 1-15 Dimensione file 0 KB
DOI 10.3280/pnei2025oa23570
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Vedi l'articolo Scarica l'articolo open access

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche.

The transition to parenthood has undergone a radical structural and conceptual evolution in recent decades, driven by unprecedented demographic shifts and rapidly changing family paradigms. These societal changes are profoundly reshaping the psychological and clinical framework of parenthood. Concurrently, discoveries in cognitive neuroscience and psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology (PNEI) have revealed that this transition represents a unique biological window, characterized by extraordinary adult neuroplasticity and epigenetic vulnerability. Neuroimaging studies confirm that entering parenthood triggers extensive anatomical remodeling in both biological and non-biological (or non-gestational) parents. However, this heightened neuroplasticity also renders the parental brain highly vulnerable to environmental and psychosocial stressors. Untreated parental distress compromises interactional synchrony and introduces severe transgenerational risks, predicting an increased susceptibility to emotional, behavioral, and even psychotic symptoms in the adult offspring. Furthermore, under the weight of modern socioeconomic pressures and unmitigated stress, parents face the risk of parental burnout. Therefore, building a robust culture of health and well-being that is both equitable and sustainable requires an intersectoral and multidimensional framework where governmental institutions, healthcare systems, commercial enterprises, local communities, and individual citizens share a collective responsibility.

  1. Seeley W.W. (2019). The Salience Network: A Neural System for Perceiving and Responding to Homeostatic Demands. Journal of Neuroscience, 39(50), 9878–9882.
  2. Leuner B., Vilarroya O., & Carmona S. (2023). The transition to motherhood: linking hormones, brain and behaviour. Nat. Rev. Neurosci., 24(10), 605–619.
  3. Stein A., Pearson R.M., Goodman S.H. et al. (2014). Effects of perinatal mental disorders on the fetus and child. Lancet, 384(9956), 1800–1819. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61277-
  4. Stoll B.J. et al. (2004). Neurodevelopmental and growth impairment among extremely low-birth-weight infants with neonatal infection. JAMA, 292, 2357–2365. pregnancy on women’s brain structure and function. Nature Communications, 17, 1495.
  5. Tziraki-Segal et al. (2019). Creating a Culture of Health in Planning and Implementing Innovative Strategies Addressing Non-communicable Chronic Diseases. Front. Sociol., 4, 9.
  6. Venuti P., Simonelli A., & Rigo P. (2018). Basi biologiche della funzione genitoriale. Milano: Raffaello Cortina.
  7. Wenzel E.S., Frye R., Roberson-Nay R., & Payne J.L. (2025). The neurobiology of postpartum depres-sion. Trends in Neurosciences, 48, 7.
  8. Worska A., Józwiak B., Ciazynska J., Maciaszek J., & Laudanska-Krzeminska I. (2026). The pregnant brain: A narrative review of neuroplasticity and adaptation for motherhood. Behavioural Brain Re-search, 506, 116133.
  9. Abraham E., & Feldman R. (2022). The neural basis of human fatherhood: a unique biocultural perspective on plasticity of brain and behavior. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev., 25(1), 93–109.
  10. Álvarez-García P., García-Fernández R., Martín-Vázquez C., Calvo-Ayuso N., & Quiroga-Sánchez E. (2024). Postpartum Depression in Fathers: A Systematic Review. J. Clin. Med., 13, 2949.
  11. Athan A.M. (2024). A critical need for the concept of matrescence in perinatal psychiatry. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1364845.
  12. Azhari A., Leck WQ., Gabrieli G. et al. (2019). Parenting stress undermines mother-child brain-to-brain synchrony: a hyperscanning study. Sci Rep., 9(1), 11407.
  13. Bogdán P.M., Varga K., Tóth L., Gróf K., & Pakai A. (2025). Parental Burnout: A Progressive Condition Potentially Compromising Family Well-Being–A Narrative Review. Healthcare, 13, 1603.
  14. Carbonella S., & Gandini V. (2023). Diventare genitori è un’esperienza Pnei. PneiReview, 2, 7-20. DOI: 10.3280/PNEI2023-00200
  15. Carmona S. et al. (2019). Pregnancy and adolescence entail similar neuroanatomical adaptations: a comparative analysis of cerebral morphometric changes. Hum. Brain Mapp., 40, 2143–2152.
  16. Carmona S., & Vilarroya O. (2025). The transition to parenthood: Linking hormones, brain, and behav-ior. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 172, 107247.
  17. Cermakova P., Chlapecka A., Csajbók Z., Andrýsková L., Brázdil M., & Marecková K. (2023). Parental education, cognition and functional connectivity of the salience network. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 2761.
  18. Chechko N. et al. (2023). Neural responses to monetary incentives in postpartum women affected by baby blues. Psychoneuroendocrinology 148, 105991.
  19. CSDH (2008). Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity Through Action on the Social Determi-nants of Health. Final Report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health. Geneva: World Health Organization.
  20. Feibel A., Pham H., Glover V., O’Connor T.G., & O’Donnell K.J. (2026). Timing of Exposure to Paren-tal Depression from Pregnancy to Young Adulthood and Mental Health in Adult Offspring. JAMA Network Open, 9(4), e264892.
  21. Feldman R. (2015). The adaptive human parental brain: implications for children’s social development. Trends Neurosci., 38, 387–399.
  22. Haj-Yahia M.M., Sokar S., Hassan-Abbas N., & Malka M. (2019). The relationship between exposure to family violence in childhood and post-traumatic stress symptoms in young adulthood: The mediating role of social support. Child Abus. Negl., 92, 126–138.
  23. Herrero-Roldán S., & Martín-Rodríguez A. (2025). Neglect and Neurodevelopment: A Narrative Re-view Understanding the Link Between Child Neglect and Executive Function Deficits. Biomedicines, 13, 1565.
  24. Hoekzema E., van Steenbergen H., Straathof M. et al. (2022). Mapping the effects of pregnancy on rest-ing state brain activity, white matter microstructure, neural metabolite concentrations and grey matter architecture. Nat Commun., 13(1), 6931.
  25. Kim P., Rigo P., Mayes LC., Feldman R., Leckman J.F., & Swain J.E. (2014). Neural plasticity in fathers of human infants. Soc Neurosci., 9(5), 522–535. DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2014.93371
  26. Laurent H.K., Stevens A., & Ablow J.C. (2011). Neural correlates of hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal regulation of mothers with their infants. BiolPsychiatry, 70(9), 826–832.
  27. Livingston G. (2018). They’re waiting longer, but U.S. women today more likely to have children than a decade ago. Pew Research Center. https://www. pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/01/18/theyre-waiting-longer-but-u-swomen-today-more-likely-to-have-children-than-a-decade-ago/.
  28. Martinez-Garcia M., Paternina-Die M., Cardenas S.I. et al. (2023). First-time fathers show longitudinal gray matter cortical volume reductions: evidence from two international samples. Cereb Cortex, 33(7), 4156–4163.
  29. Mikolajczak M., & Roskam I. (2018). A Theoretical and Clinical Framework for Parental Burnout: The Bal-ance Between Risks and Resources (BR2). Front. Psychol., 9, 886.
  30. Morgan J.K. et al. (2017). Postpartum depressive symptoms moderate the link between mothers’ neural response to positive faces in reward and social regions and observed caregiving. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 12, 1605–1613.
  31. Nguyen T., Schleihauf H., Kungl M., Kayhan E., Hoehl S., & Vrticka P. (2021). Interpersonal neural synchrony during father-child problem solving: an fNIRS hyperscanning study. Child Dev. 92(4), e565–e580.
  32. Paternina-Die M., Martinez-Garcia M., Martin de Blas D. et al. (2024). Women’s neuroplasticity during ges-tation, childbirth and postpartum. NatNeurosci., 27(2), 319–327.
  33. Pawluski J.L. (2024). The parental brain, perinatal mental illness, and treatment: A review of key structural and functional changes. Seminars in Perinatology, 48, 151951. pression. Trends Neurosci., 40(2), 106–120.
  34. Raphael D. (1975). Matrescence, becoming a mother, a “new/old” rite de passage. In Raphael D. (Ed.), Being female: Reproduction, power, and change (pp. 65–71). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
  35. Roskam I., & Mikolajczak M. (2021). The slippery slope of parental exhaustion: A process model of parental burnout. J. Appl. Dev. Psychol., 77, 101354. Neurobiol Stress, 11, 100172.
  36. Schimmelpfennig J., Topczewski J., Zajkowski W., & Jankowiak-Siuda K. (2023). The role of the sali-ence network in cognitive and affective deficits. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 17, 1133367.
  37. Davey C.G., Pujol J., & Harrison B.J. (2016). Mapping the self in the brain’s default mode network. Neuroimage, 132, 390–397.
  38. De Bari M., & Terni R. (2023). Dalla struttura alla funzione familiare: i ruoli materno e paterno nelle famiglie “moderne”. PneiReview, 2, 21-34. DOI: 10.3280/PNEI2023-00200

Rossana Terni, Parenthood: The Keystone. The Parental Brain, Development, and Salutogenesis Parental Functioning as the Conductor of Adult Health Outcomes in "PNEI REVIEW" Online First/2026, pp 1-15, DOI: 10.3280/pnei2025oa23570