2024-01-15 20:30:00
Many mothers report feeling “completely different” following giving birth, and recent research shows that this is completely normal. If it was already known that pregnancy upsets the mother’s body, this new study suggests that, like other organs, the brain is no exception to the rule.
The latter adjusts its way of functioning during the gestation period, going so far as to modify its own anatomy. There was little doubt that to enable gestation “of a person genetically different from oneself”the immune system as a whole would be affected, as neuroscience researcher Susana Carmona points out, interviewed by New Scientist.
Previous studies had already shown that pregnancy modifies the structure and organization of certain brain networks, but larger samples now make it possible to learn more regarding how the mother’s neuronal plasticity is affected.
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Significant changes
Dr. Carmona and her research group scanned the brains of 110 women who had become mothers for the first time. A first scan session was carried out during the third trimester of their pregnancy. Their brains were scanned once more within a month of giving birth, a period referred to as “postpartum.” To make comparisons, the scientists also scanned the brains of 34 women who had never had children.
The results obtained made it possible to discover significant changes during and following pregnancy, particularly in the cortex. On average, the cortex, which is the layer of tissue covering the brain, was 2.5% thinner and 4.6% smaller in volume in pregnant women than in those who had never been pregnant. During the postpartum period, many of these differences eventually diminished.
How to explain it?
Although it is still too early to interpret these results with certainty, the researchers put forward a probable hypothesis according to which pregnancy causes these neuronal modifications in order to prepare them well for parenthood.To better understand, a doctor of psychology at Columbia University , Catherine Monk, draws a parallel: “It’s like turning a backcountry road system into a highway system. Some roads are then closed while others are transformed into efficient expressways. This might also explain why the cortex thins during pregnancy and just following childbirth. The mother’s brain would therefore refine certain of its “neural routes” on its own in order to facilitate empathy and care for a child. According to Dr. Carmona, these results might make it possible to better understand neurological disorders and mental health problems associated with pregnancy, such as postpartum depression.
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