Cárdenas Sofia I, Callaghan Bridget L
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2025 May 22;22(6):818. doi: 10.3390/ijerph22060818.
Environmental factors-especially those related to interpersonal relationships and physical resources-profoundly impact women's neurobiology and mental health. Despite this, environmental factors, including socioeconomic status, early life adversity, and neighborhood resources, are less explored within the maternal brain literature. This literature highlights pregnancy as a developmental phase in adult women's lifespans marked by neurobiological shifts supporting fetal development and optimizing caregiving behaviors. While neurobiological shifts during this period are well-documented, pregnancy is also associated with a heightened risk for mental health challenges. This narrative review, focusing on the last 10 years, examines the research that underscores the importance of integrating environmental factors into research frameworks to comprehensively understand their effects on maternal neurobiology and mental health throughout pregnancy. Building on this research, authors discuss future research methodologies that will support a more comprehensive understanding of the intersection between environmental contexts, maternal neurobiology, and mental health.
环境因素——尤其是那些与人际关系和物质资源相关的因素——对女性的神经生物学和心理健康有着深远影响。尽管如此，在母性大脑相关文献中，包括社会经济地位、早年逆境和社区资源在内的环境因素却较少被探讨。该文献强调怀孕是成年女性生命周期中的一个发育阶段，其特征是神经生物学发生变化，以支持胎儿发育并优化养育行为。虽然这一时期的神经生物学变化已有充分记录，但怀孕也与心理健康挑战风险增加有关。这篇叙述性综述聚焦过去十年，审视了相关研究，这些研究强调了将环境因素纳入研究框架以全面理解其在整个孕期对母性神经生物学和心理健康影响的重要性。基于这项研究，作者们讨论了未来的研究方法，这些方法将有助于更全面地理解环境背景、母性神经生物学和心理健康之间的交叉关系。
