Dopamine drives persistent remodelling of the maternal brain

Human participants Brain tissues used in this study were provided by the Douglas Brain Bank (RRID: SCR_025991 ) with ethical approval from the Research Ethics Board (REB) of the Centre Intégré Universitaire de Santé et de Services Sociaux (CIUSSS) de l’Ouest-de-l'Île-de-Montréal. Analyses were conducted in accordance with all relevant guidelines and regulations. Informed consent from next of kin was obtained for each individual included in this study. Psychological autopsies, considered the gold standard for obtaining information on deceased individuals 51 , 52 , were conducted. In brief, these consist of a series of proxy-based, structured interviews assessing psychopathology with next of kin and complemented by reviews of medical records, as previously described 51 . Groups were matched for depression diagnosis, and were otherwise neurotypical individuals who died suddenly without prolonged agonal periods and did not have evidence of axis I disorders. Groups were matched for postmortem interval, tissue pH and RNA Integrity number. Frozen histological grade samples of grey and white matter were dissected from the subiculum by expert neuroanatomists and stored at –80 °C. Dissections were performed on 0.5-cm-thick coronal sections with the guidance of a human brain atlas 53 ( http://www.thehumanbrain.info/brain/bn_brain_atlas/brain.html ). …