Pregnancy Brain: Changes In Structure And Size Over Years

There is a theoretical and scientific current that indicates that the pregnancy brain is real and lasts longer than previously thought. This hypothesis includes the identification of a phenomenon that many women during pregnancy have already detected.

Many mothers are familiar with the mumnesia or amnseia of mothers that can occur during gestation. A study published in the journal Natural Neuroscience argues that, along with hormonal, emotional, chemical and external physical changes, pregnancy alters regions of the brain even two years after a woman gives birth.

These marked changes are also very useful. They help the mother’s ability to bond with and care for the newborn. They involve pruning the size and structure of certain areas of the brain that process social information, such as the feelings, intentions, thoughts, or beliefs of others.

There are studies that suggest that this change is very deep and lasting in the brain structure. Other studies that indicate the sporadic nature of these changes due to more circumstantial factors specific to pregnancy. Let’s see what these two positions on the existence of the pregnancy brain consist of.

The pregnancy brain

A team of scientists led by Oscar Vilarroya and Susanna Carmona from the Autonomous University of Barcelona set out to investigate the brain of pregnancy.

They analyzed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images of 25 first-time mothers before and after their pregnancies and 19 of their male partners. They also looked at a control group of 20 women who had never been pregnant, as well as 17 additional male partners.

Over a five-year period, the researchers took MRI images of the study participants at regular intervals. These scans revealed changes in the brains of the pregnant women. Specifically, there was a reduction in gray matter in the prefrontal and temporal cortices.

These are areas that correspond to social cognition and self-centered processing. Interestingly, these deficits did not create a cognitive struggle, but actually improved certain functions. ” The findings point to an adaptation process related to the benefits of detecting the needs of the child, ” said Vilarroya, ” how to identify the emotional state of the newborn .”

The changes in the brains of pregnant women shown in the scans were so frequent and consistent that scientists were able to determine whether a woman had been pregnant before just by looking at a brain scan.

Brain of pregnancy: a question more than fleeting than permanent

It’s 100% normal to have memory lapses or be forgetful when you’re busy, stressed, or poorly sleepy, says Christenson Jane Martin, MD, director of the Center for Neuropsychological Testing and Evaluation at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. When you don’t get enough sleep and multitask, your memory isn’t good. You are not cognitively sharp when you have not slept well.

” There is 15 to 40 times more progesterone and estrogens that marinate the brain during pregnancy, “ says Louann Brizendine, MD, director of the Women’s Hormone and Humor Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco.

These hormones affect all types of neurons in the brain. When a woman gives birth, there are huge surges of oxytocin that cause the uterus to contract and the body to produce milk and also affect the brain circuits.

Brain in pregnancy: a matter of priorities

Pregnancy also shuffles what catches your attention. Your IQ doesn’t change, but your priorities do. If you only have a few shelves in your brain, the first three are full of baby things.

A British study shows that hormones can also affect spatial memory, which includes remembering where things are, in pregnant women and new moms.

The brain during pregnancy is the sensation of entering a room, going after something and not remembering what you were for about five or ten times a day.

There may also be an evolutionary aspect. Women’s health expert Donnica Moore, MD, says: “ It has been postulated that, from an evolutionary point of view, this memory impairment may be helpful for women to forget about other things and focus on caring. to the child “.

Many pregnant women and new moms spend a lot of time thinking about the changes a baby will bring or caring for their newborn. As a result, your short-term memory can suffer.

How to help memory

Donnica Moore says that if a person, in this context, feels impaired in their cognitive functions, they are somehow receiving the first warning that “they need to simplify other areas of their life because life is about to be much more complicated, although at times also gratifying “.

After the baby arrives, lack of sleep is often prominent. Brizendine says: ” Women accumulate up to 700 hours of sleep debt in the first year after having a baby and that makes their brains not at their best for things other than taking care of the baby .”

Therefore, neuroimaging shows us how far these changes in functioning go. However, it is environmental factors, social support, and medical and psychological care that will determine that these changes or their consequences are permanent.

What both positions have in common is the synchronization of certain brain functions in the mother so that the care of the baby is satisfactory, although they differ in the type of attribution.