The body isn’t the only thing that changes when a the woman is pregnant.
A new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has mapped how the brain responds to rapid hormonal changes during pregnancy.
Pregnancy is a “transformative time in a person’s life, accompanied by profound hormonal and physiological changes,” study co-author Dr. Laura Pritschet said in a conversation with Fox News Digital.
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“Research comparing women before and after pregnancy provides the strongest evidence to date that the human brain undergoes neural changes during this time,” she said.
“However, we know little about how the brain evolves during gestation itself.”
The study mapped how the brain responds to rapid hormonal changes during pregnancy. (iStock)
Pritschet and his team launched the Maternal Brain Project, which scanned a mother’s brain for the first time, once every few weeks, from preconception to two years after giving birth.
This allowed the researchers to record changes in the brain in “pretty fine detail,” Pritschet said, which is “something that has never been captured before.”
“These results reveal extremely dynamic changes that occur in the human brain during pregnancy, some of which have not fully returned to preconception levels.”
“Our results show that pregnancy is characterized by a reduction in gray matter volume, cortical thinning and an improvement in white matter microstructural integrity that occurs as the gestational week progresses,” she continued.
These changes in brain matter were also linked to a significant increase in estrogen and progesterone levels. during pregnancy.
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“Together, these results reveal very dynamic changes that occur in the human brain during pregnancy, some of which have not completely returned to preconception levels,” Pritschet said.
This demonstrates a capacity for “extended neuronal remodeling into adulthood,” according to the researcher.
A reduction in gray matter in the brain is not necessarily a bad thing, she noted.
Researchers found a decrease in gray matter and an increase in white matter in the brain of a first-time mother. (iStock)
A decrease in gray matter could indicate a “fine-tuning” of brain circuits, similar to that of the cerebrum. brain changes and becomes more specialized as teens go through puberty, Pritschet told Fox News Digital.
Some of the neurological changes appear to be a response to the “high physiological demands” of pregnancy, showing how adaptive the brain can be, the researcher said.
Overall, the study found evidence of “profound changes” occurring in the brain, she noted, which could help validate the “broad range of experiences women have during pregnancy.”
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Dr. Earnest Lee Murray, a board-certified neurologist at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in Jackson, Tennesseetold Fox News Digital that he found the study “interesting.”
Murray, who was not involved in the study, defined neuroplasticity as the brain’s ability to “reorganize neural pathways in response to changes in the brain, such as growth, chemical changes, environmental exposures or injury.”
“Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganize neural pathways in response to changes in the brain, such as growth, chemical changes, environmental exposures or injury,” a neurologist told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
The extent of changes in brain structure in such a short time was one of the most “remarkable” findings of the study, Murray noted.
“This demonstrates the brain’s remarkable ability to respond to many changes and stressors,” he said.
“We know that women’s bodies undergo many changes during pregnancy, but this is the first time that changes in the brain have been documented by imaging during the different stages.”
Spotlight on Women’s Health
Pritschet stressed that pregnancy should not be considered a “niche research topic,” as 85 percent of women experience it at least once in their lives and about 140 million women are pregnant each year.
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“It’s high time to ask these questions, but we have good news: there is now a global spotlight on women’s health “in general, and the future is bright because of that,” she told Fox News Digital.
“We hope that this proof-of-concept study will serve as a catalyst for further studies in larger, more diverse cohorts of women.”
“Profound changes” occurring in the brain could help validate the “broad range of experiences” women have during pregnancy, the researcher suggested. (iStock)
Using the new information from this study, the researchers plan to further study how brain changes can lead to neurological disorders during pregnancy, such as eclampsia, epilepsy, stroke and migraine.
“There are now FDA-approved treatments for postpartum depression (a condition that affects about one in five women), but early detection remains difficult,” Pritschet said.
“The more we learn about the maternal brain, the more likely we are to be able to provide relief.”
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Murray agreed that this study will help lay the groundwork for additional studies examining various psychological or neurological conditions that women may face during pregnancy.
This study did not look at neurological changes related to forgetfulness or “brain fog” — often called “pregnancy brain” — or other side effects, Pritschet said.
“The more we learn about the maternal brain, the more likely we are to be able to provide relief.”
“We definitely need more work in this area to understand how changes in the brain during pregnancy drive or trigger cognitive, behavioral and health outcomes,” she said.
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“Everyone’s journey is different: some women report mood changes or memory loss, while others don’t. So we need to understand how and why these differences might emerge.”
