Divorced Mothers Brain Connectivity: A Preliminary Study

Divorced Mothers Brain Connectivity: A Preliminary Study | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Divorced Mothers Brain Connectivity: A Preliminary Study Waad Alanazi, Sumyah Alnajashi, Ashwag Alruwaili This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8689220/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background: Motherhood introduces extreme physiological, hormonal, and psychological changes that affect brain function. However, the impact on brain connectivity in divorced mothers, who experience unique stressors, is never investigated. Resting-state fMRI provides insights into how these challenges influence neural organization. Objective: The current study seeks to investigate changes in resting-state brain connectivity in divorced mothers and related to psychological factors. Methods: A total of 30 healthy right-handed, 15 divorced and 15 married, mothers were recruited and scanned on a 3T, with T1-WI and resting state fMRI. Seed-based connectivity analysis was selected to explore connectivity differences in pre-selected networks incorporating additional psychological assessments. Results: Preliminary MRI results at p -unc < 0.05 showed a trend in divorced mothers towards decreased connectivity between the right (rt) frontal eye field (FEF) within Dorsal Attention Network (DAN) and right posterior para-hippocampal region. While increased connectivity was between specific brain regions, a) right DAN-intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and left Default Mode Network (DMN)-lateral parietal (LP), b) left DAN-IPS and right DMN-LP, c) left DAN-IPS and left DMN-LP. The observed increase in connectivity between contralateral DMN and DAN subregions is noteworthy. Psychological assessments revealed no significant differences in cognitive performance or levels of depression, stress, or anxiety. However, divorced mothers reported higher personal growth scores. Conclusion: Divorced mothers may exhibit neural adaptations linked to the demands of their caregiving roles, which could potentially reflect aspects of resilience. Although these findings should be interpreted cautiously, with MRI and other complementary approaches, findings could guide the development of targeted interventions aimed at empowerment, resilience, and overall well-being. Resting-state fMRI Connectivity Divorced Mothers Motherhood Quality of Life Personal Growth Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SuppTable1.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8689220","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":581976825,"identity":"d11242ea-9e48-4be7-8ac9-3f1a59403949","order_by":0,"name":"Waad Alanazi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"King Saud University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Waad","middleName":"","lastName":"Alanazi","suffix":""},{"id":581976826,"identity":"e377cf7e-371f-412d-8e1a-be0fdc9d0f29","order_by":1,"name":"Sumyah Alnajashi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"King Saud University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sumyah","middleName":"","lastName":"Alnajashi","suffix":""},{"id":581976827,"identity":"50f2ee6e-d1d3-4fdc-82e9-20c564231904","order_by":2,"name":"Ashwag Alruwaili","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA+UlEQVRIie3PsYrCMBjA8YSCLgHXLKev0KNQCso9S4KgS71FcBFsRKiL0NXtXuFcnBxSPtCl4prR6SaHjA4OJl0leG4O+Q8JBH7JF4R8vreMIHS2exAIqWV9FD4nrCZYlOvXCMIiIP8hreJYar4DXizxHHrVjIvmYkvR7ctJqPruU/YHfA1YQKqAC7KfUJz33c8oElImYSRqoiUXNI2pGdIpOqcqulryY0mizWCdS2wGy5wklOZOS34tQSowrxBDGuAknyqNEyaH2caQclVBlJPBOOH5wUnaZjClZTdqnwD0dT/7KJqwUfo2dX//oYZd2AvA5/P5fI/dAY8AX7xJFT2XAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"King Saud University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ashwag","middleName":"","lastName":"Alruwaili","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-01-24 22:08:16","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8689220/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8689220/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":104405401,"identity":"9697a788-302c-4111-8840-30a25fc6e397","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-11 12:22:47","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":663171,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ManuscriptDivorcedMothers20260126APAref.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8689220/v1_covered_b4330878-2a59-4040-9937-a2bb7030e4a6.pdf"},{"id":101447060,"identity":"cfc32973-21f3-4459-8135-cb9153d52289","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-29 18:42:48","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":13554,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SuppTable1.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8689220/v1/e700d667dae573c1e1dfeba7.docx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Divorced Mothers Brain Connectivity: A Preliminary Study","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Resting-state fMRI, Connectivity, Divorced Mothers, Motherhood, Quality of Life, Personal Growth","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8689220/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8689220/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eBackground: Motherhood introduces extreme physiological, hormonal, and psychological changes that affect brain function. However, the impact on brain connectivity in divorced mothers, who experience unique stressors, is never investigated. Resting-state fMRI provides insights into how these challenges influence neural organization.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eObjective: The current study seeks to investigate changes in resting-state brain connectivity in divorced mothers and related to psychological factors. Methods: A total of 30 healthy right-handed, 15 divorced and 15 married, mothers were recruited and scanned on a 3T, with T1-WI and resting state fMRI. Seed-based connectivity analysis was selected to explore connectivity differences in pre-selected networks incorporating additional psychological assessments.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eResults: Preliminary MRI results at \u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e-unc \u0026lt; 0.05 showed a trend in divorced mothers towards decreased connectivity between the right (rt) frontal eye field (FEF) within Dorsal Attention Network (DAN) and right posterior para-hippocampal region. While increased connectivity was between specific brain regions, a) right DAN-intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and left Default Mode Network (DMN)-lateral parietal (LP), b) left DAN-IPS and right DMN-LP, c) left DAN-IPS and left DMN-LP. The observed increase in connectivity between contralateral DMN and DAN subregions is noteworthy. Psychological assessments revealed no significant differences in cognitive performance or levels of depression, stress, or anxiety. However, divorced mothers reported higher personal growth scores.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConclusion: Divorced mothers may exhibit neural adaptations linked to the demands of their caregiving roles, which could potentially reflect aspects of resilience. Although these findings should be interpreted cautiously, with MRI and other complementary approaches, findings could guide the development of targeted interventions aimed at empowerment, resilience, and overall well-being.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Divorced Mothers Brain Connectivity: A Preliminary Study","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-01-29 18:42:43","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8689220/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"848b56d3-1dff-4cdc-ba77-995220747a2f","owner":[],"postedDate":"January 29th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-03-10T01:09:54+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-01-29 18:42:43","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8689220","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8689220","identity":"rs-8689220","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}