Women’s brain experiences several changes during pregnancy.
Pregnancy is among the most drastic changes experienced by a woman’s body. However, a new study revealed that during this process, that besides the body, a woman’s brain also experience changes which can change her outlook on motherhood and the intentions of other people.
According to a new study recently published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, pregnancy changes the size as well as the structure of several regions in the brain which are responsible for a person’s understanding of feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and even the intentions of others.
During their extensive analysis, researchers discovered that the women who scored higher on a test regarding the strength of their maternal bonds also experienced the highest degree of changes in the brain during their pregnancy. The brain changes can even last at least two years after birth.
Elseline Hoekzema, the coauthor of study as well as a senior brain scientist at the Leiden University, Netherlands, revealed that they haven’t investigated the overall extent of the changes for a longer period than two years.
Dr. Hoekzema noted that the brain changes experience during pregnancy can last in laboratory mice until old age. However, at this point, it isn’t entirely clear if women experience these changes for such a long period. As such, more research is required to determine the overall impact of pregnancy on a woman’s brain and her outlook on life and relationships.
For their study, the researchers included 25 women who were ready to become mothers for the first time, as well as 19 of their male partners. Both groups underwent high-resolution MRI brain scans before conception. The researchers scanned the brain of the participants again after giving birth, as well as 20 new women who had never given birth, and 17 of their male partners.
The brain scans revealed that the new mother experienced a significant loss of gray matter in several areas of the brain, which are commonly associated with emotional intelligence, and general social cognition. Scientists were immediately able to detect the brain changes, but they are uncertain on how to interpret them. Scientists are torn between the benefits of brain changes during pregnancy with the potential negative effects of losing gray matter.
What do you think about the changes of the brain during pregnancy
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