Listen to Story During pregnancy, a woman's body goes through many changes - hormonal, cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, urinary, and more. But what changes are made in the brain, hasn't been well studied in humans. New research, published in Nature Neuroscience , has shown that the brain also experiences significant changes, some of which are temporary, while others last longer.
For the first time, researchers have mapped these brain changes by conducting brain scans 26 times, starting three weeks before conception, continuing through the nine months of pregnancy, and two years after birth. The study found that the brain's outer layer, called the grey matter, decreased in volume, while the deeper white matter, which helps different parts of the brain communicate, became more structured. These changes happened as levels of the pregnancy hormones, estradiol and progesterone, rose.
Grey matter contains the cell bodies of brain nerve cells, while white matter consists of long fibres that transmit signals across the brain. Many white matter pathways in the brain show improvements as pregnancy progresses, with these changes becoming more noticeable around 36 weeks. This was found by analyzing brain scans taken over time.
(Photo: Nature Neuroscience) This study focused on just one subject: Elizabeth Chrastil, a neuroscientist and co-author of the study. She was 38 years old when she participated and gave birth to a healthy boy, who is now four and a half years old. Since then.