Pregnancy-Induced Brain Changes Shed Light on Maternal Health
Pregnancy alters the female brain in ways that have significance for research on postpartum depression and other health issues.
A team from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) reported significant changes in the brain’s “white matter” vs “gray matter.” These changes were not slight.
Longitudinal Study Reveals Neuroplasticity in Maternal Brain
The study’s co-author, Emily Jacobs, an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at the university, stated, “We are finally able to see it unfold. The maternal brain undergoes a choreographed change across gestation.”
The study is believed to be the first to monitor changes in the brain during pregnancy as opposed to focusing on isolated snapshots’ obtained at different stages of gestation.
The brain of a single woman going through her first pregnancy was the subject of the study. Every few weeks, starting before pregnancy, during gestation, and continuing for two years after delivery, researchers led by Laura Pritschet, a PhD candidate in Jacob’s team, collected brain scans of the lady.
“Neuroplasticity” in her brain was striking, according to Pritschet and associates. The ratio of white matter to gray matter in the brain underwent the most change.
Implications for Maternal Health Research
According to the researchers, as pregnancy-related hormonal changes took place, the volume of cortical gray matter, which is found on the wrinkled outer surface of the brain, shrank.
According to the experts, this isn’t a bad shift and could simply be the brain’s “fine-tuning” throughout the body’s significant transition. For instance, throughout puberty, similar alterations take place in the cerebral gray matter.
In the meantime, there appeared to be an increase in pregnant women’s white matter tissue, which is found deeper in the brain and is essential for cross-brain connections. The white matter growth peaked in the second trimester but returned to pre-pregnancy levels by delivery, whereas the gray matter modifications persisted for a considerable time following a pregnancy.
The results were released in the journal Nature Neuroscience on September 16. “Roughly 140 million women become pregnant each year, and 85% of women become pregnant at least once in their lifetime.”
