Growing a human being is no small feat¹ -- just ask any newly pregnant woman. Her hormones² surge as her body undergoes a massive physical transformation³, and the changes don't end there. A study published Monday in Nature Neuroscience reveals that during pregnancy⁴ women undergo significant brain remodeling that persists for at least two years after birth. The study also offers preliminary evidence that this remodeling may play a role in helping⁵ women transition into motherhood.

 

A research team at Autonomous⁶ University of Barcelona, led by neuroscientist Elseline Hoekzema of Leiden University, performed brain scans on first-time mothers before and after pregnancy and found significant gray matter changes in brain regions associated with social cognition and theory of mind -- the same regions that were activated⁷ when women looked at photos of their infants. These changes, which were still present two years after birth, predicted women's scores on a test of maternal⁸ attachment⁹, and were so clear that a computer algorithm could use them to identify which women had been pregnant.

 

One of the hallmarks of pregnancy is an enormous increase in sex steroid hormones such as progesterone and estrogen, which help a woman's body prepare for carrying a child. There is only one other time when our bodies produce similarly large quantities of these hormones: puberty. Previous research has shown that during puberty these hormones cause dramatic structural¹⁰ and organizational changes in the brain. Throughout adolescence¹¹ both boys and girls lose gray matter as the brain connections they don't need are pruned¹², and their brains are sculpted¹³ into their adult form. Very little research has focused on anatomical brain changes during pregnancy, however. "Most women undergo pregnancy at some point in their lives," Hoekzema says, "But we have no idea what happens in the brain."

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