Dopamine drives persistent remodelling of the maternal brain

Nature, Published online: 20 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10509-4

Brain-wide transcriptomic profiling in mice reveals that reproductive experience remodels the maternal brain by altering dopamine dynamics in the dorsal hippocampal formation, causing dopamine-dependent histone post-translational modifications, and thereby changes in gene expression and behaviour.