According to new research, scientists have linked one of the first comprehensive details about how brain health changes throughout pregnancy. During the study, they found that certain brain regions may reduce in size during pregnancy time and yet improve connectivity with a few parts of the brain that stayed untouched by the changes to motherhood. New Delhi: Pregnancy is the most beautiful phase in a woman’s life, during this period new mothers-to-be go through many ups and downs both physically and mentally.
According to new research, scientists have linked one of the first comprehensive details about how brain health changes throughout pregnancy. During the study, they found that certain brain regions may reduce in size during pregnancy time and yet improve connectivity with a few parts of the brain that stayed untouched by the changes to motherhood. According to the study published on Monday in the Journal of Nature Neuroscience , the study’s findings are based on a healthy 38-year-old lady whose details were registered before conception two years after childbirth.
Earlier studies had taken some snapshots of the brain functioning before and after the pregnancy, in which the researchers noticed that they had witnessed the pregnant brain in the middle of the transformation timeline. For the study, the researchers scanned the brains of first-time mothers every few weeks, starting from the time of pregnancy and continuing to the two years of postpartum. And the data gathered from this revealed that the changes in the brain’s gray area and white matter across the gestation suggested that the brain can shake the neuroplasticity well into adulthood.
Decrease in gray matter, increase in white matter One of the major changes that the researchers decoded is that they scanned the subject’s brain over time and saw seen decrease in the cortical gray matter volume. Gray matter volume reduced the hormone production boosted during the pregnancy phase. While, on the other hand, a decrease in gray matter volume is not particularly a bad thing, the scientists noted.
This shift or change indicates a fine-tuning of brain circuits, not like what happens to all young adults as they transition through puberty and their brains turn to be more specialised. Click for more latest Health Conditions news. Also get top headlines and latest news from India and around the world at News9.
.
