patent changes in the brain of mothers

A few will surprise to know that pregnancy and childbirth imply fundamental changes in many aspects, even at the neurological level. However, we are still investigating the nature of these changes to resolve issues such as exactly these changes and what are due.

Brain and childbirth. Now, a study led by researchers at the Gregorio Marañón hospital in Madrid and the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) has studied the effect of pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum on the brain of women. The team He found changes associated with these last two stages, but did not find significant alterations during the gestation period.

Hippocampus and tonsil. The analysis allowed us to observe changes in the hippocampus and the tonsil of the participants. Changes that were associated with negative experiences of childbirth and the appearance of depressive symptoms in the postpartum.

More specifically, the team detected an increase in the volume of the hippocampus among the mothers who had a “negative perception” of their childbirth; while the appearance of depressive symptoms in the postpartum was associated with a greater increase in the volume of the amygdala.

“Childbirth and postpartum are moments of great emotional intensity that the mother remembers throughout her life. She changes her life and can change her body, a body also located in a context and influenced by him,” explained in a press release Cristina Ballesteros, co -author of the study.

88 first -time mothers. In the study, more than a hundred women participated, 88 of them, mothers who were examined at the end of the third trimester of pregnancy and during the first month after giving birth. The second group, of control, included 30 women without children who were examined during the same interval.

Changes in the brain of the participants were examined through magnetic resonance images. The details of the study were Published in an article In the magazine Science Advances.

Looking for the cause. The study, Explain the teamallowed to find correlations between certain experiences in childbirth and postpartum and changes in the brain, but to elucidate possible cause and effect relationships in these relationships is a more complex task. This implies the need to continue advancing in the investigation of this matter.

The authors of the study indicate that the changes could be seen as an adaptation of the brain before “challenging” events such as childbirth or the early stages of motherhood, “as well as indicators of possible vulnerabilities.”

Chained projects. A year ago, part of the team responsible for the present study published An article In the magazine Nature Neuroscience in which he also addressed the question of the changes that occur in the brain of mothers during pregnancy.

That study did detect some changes in the brain that occurred before childbirth. Specifically in a brain red, explained at the time“Involved in the perception of the self and social cognition, the famous default network.” This is a region of the brain that remains active when we are not doing any particular activity, hence its particular name.

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Image | Leah Newhouse