How a Mother’s Mental Health Shapes Her Baby’s Social Brain

At UMass Chan’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, researchers are on a heartwarming mission: to understand how babies build the brain circuits that help them connect with others.

Through the Baby Brain Study, scientists have been tracking over 80 babies and their moms, from birth to 14 months, using brain imaging tools like fNIRS and fMRI. These scans help peek into how the brain responds to social experiences.

Why focus on the “social brain”? Because it’s the foundation for everything from emotional health to learning and relationships. And in those early months, the baby’s world revolves around one key figure: the mother. Her voice, touch, and presence help sculpt the brain’s social wiring.

Sohye Kim, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry & behavioral sciences and principal investigator on the study, said, “The pilot data show a negative association between babies’ social brain response and mothers’ postpartum depression and anxiety.”

“When a mother suffers from depression or anxiety, it compromises the social environment where the baby’s brain develops. So far in our pilot data, we see mothers’ depression and anxiety as the strongest negative predictor of the baby’s social brain response in the first year of life.”

From the moment babies were born, researchers at the Shriver Center’s Baby Brain Lab began a remarkable journey, tracking how tiny minds learn to connect.

At 4, 6, and 12 months, moms and babies returned for special visits. Both wore futuristic-looking fNIRS caps, like soft sci-fi helmets, that lit up with brain activity as they played together. Peek-a-boo wasn’t just fun; it was science in action.

Then came a quiet twist: at six months, while babies snoozed peacefully, researchers used fMRI to listen in on their brains. What happened when they heard Mom’s voice? A stranger’s? Or even a sound that mimicked Mom’s tone and rhythm?

Kim said the accumulated pilot data present a compelling need for a fuller examination of social brain development in infants of mothers with clinically significant postpartum depression and anxiety.

“The goal is to extend our ongoing work to higher-risk babies and follow these babies long-term. This includes babies of mothers who are experiencing psychiatric disorders, such as maternal depression and anxiety, which is common during the first year of a baby’s life. We’re also preparing to extend the study to babies who are at genetic risk for autism,” Kim said.