California: Pregnancy This is a transformational period in a person’s life during which the body goes through rapid physical adjustments to prepare for becoming a parent, as we all know. Hormonal Changes What effects pregnancy has on the brain is still a mystery.
Researchers from Professor Emily Jacobs’ group UC Santa Barbara have created the first map of the human brain during pregnancy, providing insights into this little-studied region.
“We wanted to look at the trajectory of this Brain changes “Particularly within the gestational window,” said Laura Pritchett, lead author of a paper published recently in Nature Neuroscience (link). Previous studies have taken snapshots of the brain before and after pregnancy, but we’ve never looked at the pregnant brain in the midst of this metamorphosis, she said.
Researchers studied the brains of first-time mothers every few weeks, starting before pregnancy and continuing for up to two years after the baby was born. The results, collected in partnership with Elizabeth Crostill’s team at UC Irvine, show changes in the brain’s gray and White matter This implies that the brain is capable of remarkable adaptability well into adulthood.
Their precise imaging approach allowed them to capture dynamic brain reorganization in participants in exquisite detail. This approach complements early studies that compared women’s brains before and after pregnancy. “Our goal was to fill the gap and understand the neurobiological changes that occur during pregnancy,” the authors said.
When scientists imaged the subjects’ brains over time, the most obvious change they found was a reduction in cortical gray matter Volume, the wrinkled outer part of the brain. Increased hormone production during pregnancy reduced the volume of gray matter. However, the scientists stressed that a decrease in gray matter volume is not necessarily a bad thing. This change may indicate a “fine-tuning” of brain circuits, which happens to all young adults as they go through puberty and their brain becomes more specialized. Pregnancy likely reflects another period of cortical refinement.
“Laura Pritchett and the study team did an incredible job, performing detailed analyses that revealed new insights about the human brain and its incredible plasticity into adulthood,” Jacobs said.
Less obvious but just as important, the researchers found prominent increases in white matter located deep in the brain, which is normally responsible for facilitating communication between brain regions. While the decrease in gray matter persisted long after giving birth, the increase in white matter was transient, peaking in the second trimester and returning to pre-pregnancy levels by the time of birth. According to the researchers, such an effect has never been captured with before-and-after scans before, allowing for a better idea of how dynamic the brain can be in a relatively short period of time.
“The Maternal brain “The brain undergoes a choreographed change during pregnancy, and we are eventually able to watch it develop,” Jacobs said. These changes suggest that the adult brain is capable of undergoing an extended period of NeuroplasticityChanges in the brain that may support behavioral adaptations associated with parenting.
“85 percent of women will conceive one or more times in their lifetime, and approximately 140 million women become pregnant each year,” said Pritchett, who hopes to “dispel dogma” about women’s vulnerability during pregnancy. He argued that the neuroscience of pregnancy should not be viewed as a niche research topic, as the findings generated through this work “will deepen our overall understanding of the human brain, including its aging process.”
The open-access dataset, available online, serves as a starting point for future studies to understand whether the intensity or speed of these brain changes provide clues about pregnancy risk in women. Postpartum depressiona neurological condition that affects approximately one in five women. “There are now FDA-approved treatments for postpartum depression,” Pritchett said. “But early identification is still elusive. The more we know about the maternal brain, the better chance we have of providing relief.”
And that’s exactly what the authors aim to do. With support from the Ann S. Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative, directed by Jacobs, her team is building on these initial findings through the Maternal Brain Project. More women and their partners are being enrolled through international collaborations with researchers at UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, and in Spain.
“Experts in neuroscience, reproductive immunology, proteomics, and AI are working together to learn more than ever about the maternal brain,” Jacobs said. “Together, we have an opportunity to tackle some of the world’s most pressing and least understood problems. women’s Health,
Researchers from Professor Emily Jacobs’ group UC Santa Barbara have created the first map of the human brain during pregnancy, providing insights into this little-studied region.
“We wanted to look at the trajectory of this Brain changes “Particularly within the gestational window,” said Laura Pritchett, lead author of a paper published recently in Nature Neuroscience (link). Previous studies have taken snapshots of the brain before and after pregnancy, but we’ve never looked at the pregnant brain in the midst of this metamorphosis, she said.
Researchers studied the brains of first-time mothers every few weeks, starting before pregnancy and continuing for up to two years after the baby was born. The results, collected in partnership with Elizabeth Crostill’s team at UC Irvine, show changes in the brain’s gray and White matter This implies that the brain is capable of remarkable adaptability well into adulthood.
Their precise imaging approach allowed them to capture dynamic brain reorganization in participants in exquisite detail. This approach complements early studies that compared women’s brains before and after pregnancy. “Our goal was to fill the gap and understand the neurobiological changes that occur during pregnancy,” the authors said.
When scientists imaged the subjects’ brains over time, the most obvious change they found was a reduction in cortical gray matter Volume, the wrinkled outer part of the brain. Increased hormone production during pregnancy reduced the volume of gray matter. However, the scientists stressed that a decrease in gray matter volume is not necessarily a bad thing. This change may indicate a “fine-tuning” of brain circuits, which happens to all young adults as they go through puberty and their brain becomes more specialized. Pregnancy likely reflects another period of cortical refinement.
“Laura Pritchett and the study team did an incredible job, performing detailed analyses that revealed new insights about the human brain and its incredible plasticity into adulthood,” Jacobs said.
Less obvious but just as important, the researchers found prominent increases in white matter located deep in the brain, which is normally responsible for facilitating communication between brain regions. While the decrease in gray matter persisted long after giving birth, the increase in white matter was transient, peaking in the second trimester and returning to pre-pregnancy levels by the time of birth. According to the researchers, such an effect has never been captured with before-and-after scans before, allowing for a better idea of how dynamic the brain can be in a relatively short period of time.
“The Maternal brain “The brain undergoes a choreographed change during pregnancy, and we are eventually able to watch it develop,” Jacobs said. These changes suggest that the adult brain is capable of undergoing an extended period of NeuroplasticityChanges in the brain that may support behavioral adaptations associated with parenting.
“85 percent of women will conceive one or more times in their lifetime, and approximately 140 million women become pregnant each year,” said Pritchett, who hopes to “dispel dogma” about women’s vulnerability during pregnancy. He argued that the neuroscience of pregnancy should not be viewed as a niche research topic, as the findings generated through this work “will deepen our overall understanding of the human brain, including its aging process.”
The open-access dataset, available online, serves as a starting point for future studies to understand whether the intensity or speed of these brain changes provide clues about pregnancy risk in women. Postpartum depressiona neurological condition that affects approximately one in five women. “There are now FDA-approved treatments for postpartum depression,” Pritchett said. “But early identification is still elusive. The more we know about the maternal brain, the better chance we have of providing relief.”
And that’s exactly what the authors aim to do. With support from the Ann S. Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative, directed by Jacobs, her team is building on these initial findings through the Maternal Brain Project. More women and their partners are being enrolled through international collaborations with researchers at UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, and in Spain.
“Experts in neuroscience, reproductive immunology, proteomics, and AI are working together to learn more than ever about the maternal brain,” Jacobs said. “Together, we have an opportunity to tackle some of the world’s most pressing and least understood problems. women’s Health,
