Research-backed
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Pregnancy brain – there is no exaggeration in the clichéd phrase. At least from what has surfaced from the latest study by Leiden University and Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. As per the new study made by the researchers at these universities, the grey matter in certain parts of a woman’s brain can reduce while helping her to bond with her baby and gear up for the demands of motherhood.
The study involved scanning twenty-five first-time mothers who showed these changes in the brain structure that prevailed for at least two years after giving birth.
These changes were similar to the changes that happened during adolescence, according to the European researchers who made the study. However, they did not find any evidence of women’s memory deteriorating.
But the emotional phases and forgetfulness that women undergo during pregnancy can very well allude to these changes in the grey matter of the brain.
Researchers say that pregnancy witnesses an extreme surge in the estrogen and progesterone levels, and so there are drastic physical and physiological changes in the body. The gush of estrogen during pregnancy is the highest than at any point in time in a mother’s non-pregnant life. There is also a 10–15 fold increase of progesterone relative to luteal phase levels (1). It is known that the gonadal steroidal hormones show an extensive reorganization of the brain leading to neural alterations in the morphology with the subtle changes later in life as well. So while there is no enough information on how pregnancy has its effects on the human brain, it won’t be surprising to see any noticeable changes in the brain regions.
Studies made in the past century had reflected an increase in choline levels, enlargement of the pituitary gland size, an increase in the ventricular size of the brain, and a decrease of the brain size during pregnancy in comparison to the early postpartum period.
The current study published in Nature Neuroscience attempts at understanding how the brain changes in women. This is done by studying the brain scans of women before pregnancy, right after they gave birth, followed by two years later.
The brain scans were compared with 19 first-time fathers, 17 men who were not fathers, and 20 women who never gave birth. The computers were able to identify the women who had been pregnant simply by analyzing the brain image.
There was a significant and long-lasting reduction in the grey matter volume in the brains of first-time moms. The changes were predominantly seen in the brain regions that are associated with social processes akin to the theory-of-mind network. Depending on the volume change in the grey matter across the sessions, one could classify the women involved in the study as having undergone a pregnancy or not. These brain regions indicate the strongest response of women towards their babies in a postpartum fMRI task. This aspect, according to the researchers, is important in helping a mother identify the needs of her child, help her be more aware of the potential social threats, and eventually bond better with the baby. In fact, the changes in the grey matter volumes during pregnancy predict the measures of postpartum mother-to-child attachment and hostility.
One of the tasks involved the women being shown pictures of their babies and other babies whereby their brain activity was monitored. It was observed that the part of the brain which lit up when they saw the images of their babies matched the regions wherein the grey matter was reduced or tuned for motherhood. But when the women were shown pictures of other babies, these brain regions did not light up.
The researchers believe that the reduction in the volume of the grey matter is an adaptive and supportive way to prepare a woman for motherhood, irrespective of the means of conception.
When it came to studying the grey matter of the first-time fathers whose brains were monitored before and after their partners’ pregnancy, there appeared to be no changes.
There were no changes in the white matter of the brain as well.
There is a likelihood that lifestyle and environmental factors might also play a role in neuroanatomical alterations in pregnant women, but only further studies can ascertain this aspect.
