Pregnancy appears to trigger a kind of “reorganization” of an expecting mother’s brain, new research suggests.
MRI images taken of a 38-year-old woman throughout her pregnancy show the condition caused an extensive restructuring of her brain, according to a proof-of-concept study published Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
As part of the study, neuroscientist and first-time mother Elizabeth Chrastil underwent 26 magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRIs).
The brain is made up of two types of material — gray matter and white matter.
When researchers looked at Chrastil’s MRI scans, some of the changes they noticed were a decrease in grey matter — or the wrinkly outermost layer of the brain.
Another change was an increase in white matter — which is located deeper in the brain and is essentially a network of nerve fibers that enable parts of the brain to communicate with one another.
But research on pregnancy is often ignored in the scientific community, and as a result, the neuroanatomical changes that occur during gestation are “virtually unknown,” Pritschet told The Hill.
During a pregnancy, a soon-to-be mother’s body undergoes numerous physical changes to support a developing fetus like increased plasma volume, increased metabolic rate and oxygen use.
More research is needed though to fully understand the degree to which the brain changes throughout pregnancy, Pritschet said.
“Only then can we begin to establish what constitutes a typical degree of neuroanatomical change expected during gestation and postpartum recovery.”
According to recent research, an expecting mother’s brain appears to undergo a type of “reorganization” when she becomes pregnant.
In a proof-of-concept study published on Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience, MRI images of a 38-year-old woman taken during her pregnancy reveal the condition caused an extensive restructuring of her brain.
Elizabeth Chrastil, a neuroscientist and first-time mother, had 26 magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRIs) as part of the study. The study states that the first was taken three weeks prior to her conceiving through in vitro fertilization, and the last was taken two years after she gave birth.
Gray matter and white matter comprise the two main components of the brain. A reduction in grey matter, the brain’s wrinkled outermost layer, was one of the changes observed by researchers when they examined Chrastil’s MRI scans.
Elevated levels of white matter, which are found deeper in the brain and function as a network of nerve fibers that allow different parts of the brain to communicate with one another, were another change.
While many changes went back to normal after childbirth, some changes, such as cortical thickness and volume, persisted in the postpartum years, according to the researchers.
The lead author of the study, Laura Pritschet, is a postdoctoral fellow in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. She claims that prior imaging studies of a pregnant woman’s brain before and after delivery have provided the strongest evidence to date that the human brain experiences neural changes over pregnancy.
According to Pritschet, The Hill, the neuroanatomical changes that take place during gestation are “virtually unknown,” however, because pregnancy research is frequently disregarded in the scientific community.
The “profound hormonal and physiological changes” that accompany pregnancy and how they affect the approximately 140 million women who become pregnant worldwide each year are revealed by the recently published research findings.
The body of a soon-to-be mother changes significantly during pregnancy in order to support the growing fetus, including increased oxygen consumption, metabolic rate, and plasma volume.
The majority of these alterations are brought about by significant increases in the production of specific hormones, such as progesterone and estrogen, which also seem to be responsible for the “remodeling” of the central nervous system that the researchers observed in their investigation.
That being said, Pritschet stated that more studies are required to completely comprehend the extent to which the brain changes during pregnancy.
She stated in an email, “Our goal is that this proof-of-concept study acts as a springboard for additional studies that involve larger, more diverse cohorts of women.”. That’s the only time we can start defining the normal range of neuroanatomical changes that are anticipated throughout pregnancy and the postpartum period. “.
