184
Pregnancy completely rewires mothers' brains — study (www.dw.com)
submitted 1 month ago by namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev to c/science@lemmy.world
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The researchers found sweeping changes in overall brain neuroanatomy which unfolded week by week during the pregnancy.

Inside Chrastil's brain, grey matter volume, cortical thickness, white matter microstructure, and ventricle volume all changed.

The changes were all over the brain too — "over 80% of my brain regions showed reductions in grey matter volume," Chrastil said.

Neuroanatomical changes observed over the course of a human pregnancy. Published by Pritschet, L., Taylor, C.M., Cossio, D. et al. in Nature Neuroscience (September 2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-024-01741-0

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] treadful@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 month ago

The changes were all over the brain too — "over 80% of my brain regions showed reductions in grey matter volume," Chrastil said.

Grey matter is brain tissue with high concentrations of neuron cell bodies, where information is processed. Reductions in grey matter volume are sometimes associated with reduced memory and cognitive function.

However, the study authors say a reduction in grey matter during pregnancy isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's more like a wave of brain refinement as the brain prepares for motherhood — like the process of chiseling a block of marble into a sculpture.

Seems like an overly positive framing of the effect.

this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2024
184 points (97.9% liked)

science

14594 readers
46 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

<--- rules currently under construction, see current pinned post.

2024-11-11

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
m3t00@lemmy.world
Joleee@lemmy.world
laverabe@lemmy.world
DeadPand@midwest.social