pregnancy This is a period of profound transformation in a person’s life, marked by rapid physiological adaptations to prepare the body for motherhood, a widely known fact. However, what remains an enigma is how the drastic hormonal changes of pregnancy affect the brain. Researchers from the laboratory Professor Emily Jacobs, University of California, Santa Barbara (USA)have made significant advances in this little-studied field, publishing the first map of the human brain during pregnancy in a recent article in Natural neuroscience.
“We wanted to observe the trajectory of the brain changes specifically during the gestational window,” says Laura Pritschet, lead author of the paper. So far, Previous studies have captured images of the brain before and after pregnancybut its evolution during this stage of transformation had never been documented.
The team analyzed the brain of a new mother every few weeks from before pregnancy to two years after delivery. The data were obtained in collaboration with the team of Elizabeth Chrastil at UC Irvine (USA)revealed changes in the brain’s gray and white matter throughout pregnancy. This suggests that the brain has an astonishing capacity for neuroplasticity, even in adulthood.
What is the gray matter of the brain?
The gray matter of the brain is a crucial part of the central nervous system and is mainly composed of the cell bodies of neurons, their dendrites, and glial cells. It is the region of the brain that is involved in information processing and functions such as motor control, sensory processing, and thought.
Gray matter is found on the surface of the brain, forming the cerebral cortex, as well as in the inner nuclei of the brain, such as the basal ganglia. Unlike white matter, which is made up of myelinated nerve fibers (axons), gray matter primarily contains the active parts of neurons where connections and signal transmission occur.
High precision images
Using a high-precision imaging method allowed the researchers to observe in great detail the dynamic reorganization of the participant’s brain. This approach complements previous studies comparing the brains of women before and after pregnancy. As the authors explain, “Our goal was to fill the gap and understand the neurobiological changes that occur during pregnancy.
One of the most notable findings was the decrease in the volume of cortical gray matter, the wrinkled outer part of the brain, which shrank as increased hormone production during pregnancy. However, scientists point out that this reduction is not necessarily negative. In fact, it could represent a “fine tuning” brain circuits, similar to what happens in adolescence, during puberty, when the brain becomes specialized. Pregnancy will likely be another period of cortical refinement.
Ester Muñoz and her team conducted a comprehensive set of analyses that provided new insights into adult brain plasticity during this stage, Jacobs says.
In addition to the decrease in gray matter, the researchers observed an increase in white matterwhich is found in deeper areas of the brain and facilitates communication between different brain regions. Although the reduction in gray matter continued after delivery, the increase in white matter was temporary, peaking in the second trimester and returning to pre-pregnancy levels by the time of delivery. These types of changes have never been captured with previous analyseswhich allows us to better understand brain dynamism over a short period of time.
“The maternal brain undergoes a choreographed change throughout gestation, and we can finally see how this happens,” Jacobs says. These findings suggest that the adult brain is capable of undergoing prolonged periods of neuroplasticitychanges that could facilitate behavioral adaptations related to parenting.
Neurological research
Pritschet also stressed that pregnancy should not be considered as a marginal themel in search neurologicalsince more than 85% of women experience one or more pregnancies throughout their lives. Understanding the brain changes that occur during this process will not only expand knowledge about the neuroscience of pregnancy, but also about brain function in general, including aging.
This new, open-access dataset provides a starting point for future studies to determine whether the magnitude or pace of these brain changes can offer clues to the risk of postpartum depression, a condition that affects one in five women.Although there are now approved treatments for postpartum depression“, says Pritschet, “early detection remains a challenge. “The more we learn about the maternal brain, the better our chances of providing relief.”
“Experts in neuroscience, reproductive immunology, proteomics and artificial intelligence are joining forces to discover more about the maternal brain than ever before,” Jacobs concludes.Together, we have the opportunity to solve some of the most pressing problems and less understood in the field of women’s health.
