Recent research has illuminated the profound neurological changes that occur during pregnancy, indicating that "pregnancy brain" is a more complex phenomenon than previously understood. Traditionally dismissed as mere forgetfulness or cognitive decline, studies utilizing advanced neuroimaging techniques have revealed significant alterations in brain structure and function. For instance, a study published in Nature Neuroscience utilized MRI scans to demonstrate that pregnant women experience increased gray matter density in regions associated with social cognition and nurturing behavior (Hoekzema et al., 2017). This adaptation appears to enhance maternal bonding and caregiving capabilities.
Based on 26 scans of one healthy 38-year-old woman's brain, scientists found "remarkable things" including changes to regions linked to socialising and emotional processing - some of which were still obvious two years after giving birth.
Further studies in many more women are now needed to determine the potential impact of these brain changes, they say
And those insights could improve understanding of the earliest signs of conditions such as postnatal depression and pre-eclampsia.
The work, described as “truly heroic” by one independent expert, paves the way for a far deeper understanding of the mother’s brain in pregnancy. Further scans are now being gathered from other pregnant women to learn about the risks of postnatal depression, the link between pre-eclampsia and dementia, and why pregnancy can reduce migraines and symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
About 85% of sexually active women who don’t use any birth control can expect to become pregnant within a year, and around 208 million women get pregnant every year.
“The brain is an endocrine organ, and sex hormones are potent neuromodulators, but a lot of that knowledge comes from animal studies,” Jacobs said. Human studies tend to rely on brain imaging and endocrine assessments collected from groups of people at a single point in time.
“But that kind of group averaging approach can’t tell us anything about how the brain is changing day to day or week to week as hormones ebb and flow,” Jacobs added. “My lab here at UC Santa Barbara uses precision imaging methods to understand how the brain responds to major neuroendocrine transitions like the circadian cycle, the menstrual cycle, menopause and now, in this paper, one of the largest neuroendocrine transitions that a human can experience — which is pregnancy.”
In this way, Dr Chrastil says, "we can determine whether any of these changes could help predict things like postpartum depression or understand how something like pre-eclampsia could affect the brain".
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