A new study has shown that brain changes experienced by pregnant among women might last for up to two years.
The researchers discovered that the brain's gray matter, which plays a role in social response, becomes smaller in volume making mothers more efficient in responding to their child's needs and recognizing possible threats in the environment.
The study used a standard test for determining the level of attachment of women to their children. It differentiated between women who underwent in-vitro fertilization and natural conception.
The lead author of the study, Elseline Hoekzema, explained that "we certainly don't want to put a message out there along the lines of 'pregnancy makes you lose your brain.'" The neuroscientist added that "gray matter volume loss can also represent a beneficial process of maturation or specialization." Hoekzema herself is also a mother of a two-year-old child.
Pregnancy results in physiological, hormonal, and physical changes in the women's body. Pregnant women tend to become forgetful and unable to concentrate. On the other hand, animals manifested brain changes such as in the case of mother rodents who become more efficient in storing and collecting food.
The researchers used an MRI to scan the brains of 25 women twice; before they got pregnant and three weeks after giving birth. A total of 19 new fathers, 17 childless men, and 20 childless women were also examined in the study.
Changes in the gray matter were analyzed through a computer-based system. The scientists observed that gray matter of mothers shrinks. Most of the changes occur in the regions of the brain responsible for socialization and understanding others' intentions through their actions and facial expression. They also observed that the hippocampus region, which is responsible for memory, also shrinks. The scientists examined the participants two years after they gave birth. They found out that the gray matter remained small in volume while the hippocampus was restored.
The study concluded that an MRI scan could accurately determine whether or not a woman is pregnant. Meanwhile, the absence of changes in men's and non-pregnant women's brain is associated with biological processes involving hormones that only mothers undergo.
Evolutionary psychologist Mel Rutherford said, "it opens the door to the possibility that it might cause changes in parenting that might have implications for decision making and behavior later in life."
Hoekzema said the findings published in Nature Neuroscience "provide some of the first evidence that these brain changes may in some way help a mother to care for her infant."