There are several studies that have been done about the woman's brain once she becomes pregnant and to date what is known is that the mother loses some memory (You may have noticed more despise during pregnancy), but in return you develop more empathy.
A new study has wanted to deepen these conclusions to further help to know the maternal brain, its changes and for how long they occur, and have seen that yes, that is true: the mother's brain changes during pregnancy to take better care of the baby.
The mother's brain decreases in some areas
Yes, this decreasing sounds fatal, but it is not so bad. Apparently, from pregnancy, the brain causes a kind of "neuronal pruning" in that it reduces part of the gray matter in areas of the brain related to empathy. This reduction could help the mother to be willing to take more and better care of the baby, by somehow decreasing more rational parts of the brain.
In Babies and more Baby crying activates the same brain mechanisms in mothers of different culturesTo explain it in a simple way (if I understood correctly): the most rational part of our brain controls and moderates the instincts and emotions (the rational brain controls the emotional brain and the primitive brain). During pregnancy, the same body is dedicated to diminishing some rationality in certain areas, so that emotions can surface better and so that the mother feels more responsible for the care of her baby. In fact, it is considered that thanks to these changes the mother has more facility in interpreting the baby's mental states or anticipating possible threats, as we read in El País.
A pruning that does not affect cognitive abilities
For the research, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, MRIs were made to 25 women before and after pregnancy. In turn, they also looked at future parents, and compared all these data with a group of 20 women and men who had not had children.
They saw that pregnant women were the only ones who suffered obvious changes in the brain, and that also happened to everyone. The changes are as explained: an important reduction of gray matter in specific areas of the brain, but not in others, which would allow mothers to be more solicitous, more attentive and more empathic towards their baby's needs.
But this reduction did not cause a decrease in cognitive abilities, as pregnant women obtained the same score as women in the control group in several tests performed.
On the other hand, when seeing the brain of the parents, they observed that there were no differences from other parents, as well as in reference to their own resonances performed before having the baby.
Does this mean that the father's brain does not change? Well, according to this study, yes; The brain of man does not change. However, a few years ago another study said something a little different: that parents, when they are the main caregivers of the baby, the top responsible, do see their brains modified (perhaps the difference lies in this fact ... that the parents analyzed in this more recent studies were not the primary caregivers).
The changes are still present even two years later
According to the researchers, changes in the mother's brain could come from hormonal, physical and functional changes. A mixture of circumstances that would lead the mother to adapt so that the baby is more protected and cared for; more than it would be if these changes did not occur.
Interestingly, two years after the baby was born, the mothers had a new brain scan and they found that the changes were still present.
In Babies and more Dopamine in the brain helps mothers establish a better emotional bond with their babiesAnd this, in practice, how does it show? You will ask some. The truth is that I do not know. I have no answer, because in many cases the rationality of mothers is so high that there are no changes that are worthwhile: many choose to do only what they think is right, because they have explained it instead of doing it what they feel is right.
However, there are cases in which this change could happen, and even the mother could explain it this way, with surprise. I think of those moments when a mother feels that you should not let others take your baby, although his rational brain tells him that nothing happens. That is, he knows he will be fine, he knows that nothing can happen to him, but from his gut a feeling is born that tells him to recover his baby as soon as possible.
Who knows if we are not talking about one of those brain modifications or if, in fact, it would happen the same if they did not occur.
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In Babies and more | What happens in the mother's brain when pregnant? The mother's brain grows after childbirth, pregnancy amnesia
