'Mommy Brain' Doesn't Capture How the Brain Transforms During Pregnancy
upstart writes:
Pregnancy quickly reorganizes the brain to respond to infants:
Pregnancy shrinks parts of the brain. That sounds bad. Throw in the forgetfulness and fogginess, or "momnesia," that many moms report, and what's left is the notion that for the brain, the transition to motherhood is a net loss.
[...] But that's just not true, Pawluski says. The perception that the maternal brain is dysfunctional has gone on long enough: It's time to "start giving the maternal brain the credit it deserves," Pawluski and her colleagues write February 6 in in JAMA Neurology.
Pregnancy does kick-start structural changes in the brain, including a loss of gray matter. But the loss isn't automatically a bad thing - reductions can reflect a fine-tuning process that makes the brain more efficient (SN: 3/18/22).
During the transition to motherhood, the brain reorganizes its connections, strengthening those that are useful and letting go of those that aren't, Pawluski says. This reorganization prepares the brain "to learn rapidly to keep a baby alive," she says.
[...] Giving the maternal brain its due for its incredible adaptations does not mean that caregiving is a skill exclusive to those who give birth. While hormones trigger brain modifications during pregnancy, nonbirthing parents' brains change with the experience of having a newborn. After the birth of their first child, new fathers' brains showed a reduction in gray matter, but childless men's brains didn't, researchers reported in Cerebral Cortex in 2022.
Changing misperceptions about the brain during the transition to motherhood "comes back to acknowledging the importance of caregiving," Pawluski says, by all parents. "The ability for your brain to actually learn to keep a baby alive is a big deal."
Journal Reference:
Clare McCormack; Bridget L. Callaghan; Jodi L. Pawluski. It's Time to Rebrand "Mommy Brain", JAMA Neuro (DOI: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2022.5180)
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