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'Mommy Brain' Doesn't Capture How the Brain Transforms During Pregnancy
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'Mommy brain' doesn't capture how the brain transforms during pregnancy [sciencenews.org]:
Pregnancy shrinks parts of the brain. That sounds bad. Throw in the forgetfulness and fogginess, or “momnesia,” that many moms report, and what’s left is the notion that for the brain, the transition to motherhood is a net loss.
“I see it on social media all the time,” says neuroscientist and therapist Jodi Pawluski of the University of Rennes in France. “Your brain shrunk. This is why [you] forget everything.”
But that’s just not true, Pawluski says. The perception that the maternal brain is dysfunctional has gone on long enough: It’s time to “start giving the maternal brain the credit it deserves [jamanetwork.com],” Pawluski and her colleagues write February 6 in in JAMA Neurology.
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Pregnancy does kick-start structural changes in the brain, including a loss of gray matter. But the loss isn’t automatically a bad thing [sciencenews.org] — reductions can reflect a fine-tuning process that makes the brain more efficient (SN: 3/18/22).
During the transition to motherhood, the brain reorganizes its connections, strengthening those that are useful and letting go of those that aren’t, Pawluski says. This reorganization prepares the brain “to learn rapidly to keep a baby alive,” she says.
In a 2016 study, for example, researchers reported brain changes, including reductions, that appear to foster attachment to a new baby [sciencenews.org] (SN: 12/19/16). Other work by this team found pregnancy-triggered decreases in the volume of the ventral striatum, a region involved in motivation and reward. Those reductions in mothers’ brains were associated with a heightened responsiveness [nih.gov] toward their babies, the team reported in Psychoneuroendocrinology in 2020.
Still, many pregnant and postpartum women do report memory loss. Studies haven’t found large differences when testing memory for new moms compared with nonmothers, Pawluski says, but more research is needed to understand the mental load of parenthood — the impact of endless tasks and distractions.
A possible explanation for “momnesia” or “mommy brain” is that new mothers turn their attention toward baby and away from other things. Indeed, pregnant women, in contrast to never-pregnant women, demonstrated a boost in learning about baby-related objects [tandfonline.com] as compared with adult-related items, researchers reported in Memory in 2022. Pregnant women also fared better with recalling relationships between objects and locations.
The changes in the maternal brain are akin to those seen during adolescence. A study of first-time mothers and female adolescents found that the reductions in volume in the maternal brain matched those seen in the teens [nih.gov], researchers reported in Human Brain Mapping in 2019. “We accept adolescence as being a time of transition and a lot of neuroplasticity,” or the brain’s ability to change, Pawluski says. The shift to motherhood is just as impactful on the brain, she says.
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Giving the maternal brain its due for its incredible adaptations does not mean that caregiving is a skill exclusive to those who give birth. While hormones trigger brain modifications during pregnancy, nonbirthing parents’ brains change with the experience of having a newborn. After the birth of their first child, new fathers’ brains showed a reduction in gray matter [oup.com], but childless men’s brains didn’t, researchers reported in Cerebral Cortex in 2022.
Changing misperceptions about the brain during the transition to motherhood “comes back to acknowledging the importance of caregiving,” Pawluski says, by all parents. “The ability for your brain to actually learn to keep a baby alive is a big deal.”
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From the Nature Index Paid Content
Pregnancy shrinks parts of the brain. That sounds bad. Throw in the forgetfulness and fogginess, or “momnesia,” that many moms report, and what’s left is the notion that for the brain, the transition to motherhood is a net loss.
“I see it on social media all the time,” says neuroscientist and therapist Jodi Pawluski of the University of Rennes in France. “Your brain shrunk. This is why [you] forget everything.”
But that’s just not true, Pawluski says. The perception that the maternal brain is dysfunctional has gone on long enough: It’s time to “start giving the maternal brain the credit it deserves [jamanetwork.com],” Pawluski and her colleagues write February 6 in in JAMA Neurology.
Science News headlines, in your inbox
Headlines and summaries of the latest Science News articles, delivered to your email inbox every Thursday.
Client key*E-mail Address*
Thank you for signing up!
There was a problem signing you up.
Pregnancy does kick-start structural changes in the brain, including a loss of gray matter. But the loss isn’t automatically a bad thing [sciencenews.org] — reductions can reflect a fine-tuning process that makes the brain more efficient (SN: 3/18/22).
During the transition to motherhood, the brain reorganizes its connections, strengthening those that are useful and letting go of those that aren’t, Pawluski says. This reorganization prepares the brain “to learn rapidly to keep a baby alive,” she says.
In a 2016 study, for example, researchers reported brain changes, including reductions, that appear to foster attachment to a new baby [sciencenews.org] (SN: 12/19/16). Other work by this team found pregnancy-triggered decreases in the volume of the ventral striatum, a region involved in motivation and reward. Those reductions in mothers’ brains were associated with a heightened responsiveness [nih.gov] toward their babies, the team reported in Psychoneuroendocrinology in 2020.
Still, many pregnant and postpartum women do report memory loss. Studies haven’t found large differences when testing memory for new moms compared with nonmothers, Pawluski says, but more research is needed to understand the mental load of parenthood — the impact of endless tasks and distractions.
A possible explanation for “momnesia” or “mommy brain” is that new mothers turn their attention toward baby and away from other things. Indeed, pregnant women, in contrast to never-pregnant women, demonstrated a boost in learning about baby-related objects [tandfonline.com] as compared with adult-related items, researchers reported in Memory in 2022. Pregnant women also fared better with recalling relationships between objects and locations.
The changes in the maternal brain are akin to those seen during adolescence. A study of first-time mothers and female adolescents found that the reductions in volume in the maternal brain matched those seen in the teens [nih.gov], researchers reported in Human Brain Mapping in 2019. “We accept adolescence as being a time of transition and a lot of neuroplasticity,” or the brain’s ability to change, Pawluski says. The shift to motherhood is just as impactful on the brain, she says.
Subscribe to Science News
Get great science journalism, from the most trusted source, delivered to your doorstep.
Subscribe [sciencenews.org]
Giving the maternal brain its due for its incredible adaptations does not mean that caregiving is a skill exclusive to those who give birth. While hormones trigger brain modifications during pregnancy, nonbirthing parents’ brains change with the experience of having a newborn. After the birth of their first child, new fathers’ brains showed a reduction in gray matter [oup.com], but childless men’s brains didn’t, researchers reported in Cerebral Cortex in 2022.
Changing misperceptions about the brain during the transition to motherhood “comes back to acknowledging the importance of caregiving,” Pawluski says, by all parents. “The ability for your brain to actually learn to keep a baby alive is a big deal.”
More Stories from Science News on Neuroscience [sciencenews.org]
- Health & Medicine Psychedelics may improve mental health by getting inside nerve cells [sciencenews.org]
- Neuroscience Adult mouse brains are teeming with ‘silent synapses’ [sciencenews.org]
- Neuroscience Rats can bop their heads to the beat [sciencenews.org]
- Neuroscience New brain implants ‘read’ words directly from people’s thoughts [sciencenews.org]
- Psychology A new treatment for debilitating nightmares offers sweeter dreams [sciencenews.org]
- Neuroscience Clumps of human nerve cells thrived in rat brains [sciencenews.org]
- Neuroscience Why traumatic brain injuries raise the risk of a second, worse hit [sciencenews.org]
- Animals ‘Wonderful nets’ of blood vessels protect dolphin and whale brains during dives [sciencenews.org]
From the Nature Index Paid Content
Journal Reference:
Bridget Callaghan, Clare McCormack, Nim Tottenham, et al. Evidence for cognitive plasticity during pregnancy via enhanced learning and memory, Memory (DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2021.2019280 [doi.org])
Martínez-García, Magdalena, Paternina-Die, María, Cardenas, Sofia I, et al. First-time fathers show longitudinal gray matter cortical volume reductions: evidence from two international samples, Cerebral Cortex (DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac333 [doi.org])
Martínez-García, Magdalena, Paternina-Die, María, Cardenas, Sofia I, et al. First-time fathers show longitudinal gray matter cortical volume reductions: evidence from two international samples, Cerebral Cortex (DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac333 [doi.org])
