London - Plenty of women will tell you that becoming a bit forgetful and emotional is part and parcel of pregnancy.
And now scientists have confirmed that not only does so-called “baby brain” exist – it actually has a purpose.
According to psychologists, changes in the brain during pregnancy are designed to help mothers prepare for bonding.
A study found that pregnant women show increased activity in the area of the brain related to emotional skills.
The finding suggests that hormones activated during pregnancy fine-tune the intuition which helps a woman understand her baby’s needs from the moment the child is born.
The results of the study – led by Dr Victoria Bourne at Royal Holloway, University of London – was presented this week at the British Psychological Society’s annual conference in Birmingham.
Dr Bourne said: “our findings give us a significant insight into the ‘baby brain’ phenomenon that makes a woman more sensitive during the child-bearing process. The results suggest that during pregnancy, there are changes in how the brain processes facial emotions that ensure that mothers are neurologically prepared to bond with their babies at birth.”
The research team examined the neuropsychological activity of 19 pregnant women and 20 mothers whose babies were nine weeks old on average.
The women looked at images of adult and baby faces with either positive or negative expressions.
The results showed that pregnant women used the right side of their brain more than those who had already had their babies.
The right side of the brain is typically associated with emotion while the left is linked to logic.
The study used the chimeric faces test, based on images composed of half of a neutral face and half of an emotive face combined.
The resulting doctored photo allows researchers to tell which side of the participants’ brain is used to process positive and negative emotions.
The results showed that pregnant women used the right side of their brain more than the new mothers did, particularly when processing positive emotions. Bourne said: “We know from previous research that pregnant women are more sensitive to emotional expressions, particularly when looking at babies’ faces.
“We also know that new mothers who demonstrate symptoms of post-natal depression sometimes interpret their baby’s emotional expressions as more negative than they really are.”
The pregnant women in the study were better at picking up emotions than the mothers whose babies had already been born – and Bourne said further research was needed to explore this.
* Young women who go through the menopause have a higher risk of suffering “brain fog”, warn researchers.
A study shows they appear to have more trouble with many cognitive functions including memory. In the UK, the average age of the menopause is 51 years, but a report last year found one in 20 women had gone through an early menopause.
Premature menopause may have long-term harmful effects on brain function, says a study in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Almost 5 000 post-menopausal women were given cognitive tests at the start of the study and then after two, four and seven years.
In comparison to women going through the menopause after 50, those with a premature menopause did worse on a range of brain function tests.
They were 40 percent more likely to perform badly in verbal fluency and visual memory tests. They were also 35 percent more at risk of a decline in psychomotor speed, the co-ordination between the brain and muscles that brings about movement.
Study leader Dr Joanne Ryan at the Hospital La Colombiere, Montpellier, said “both premature surgical menopause and premature ovarian failure, were associated with long-term negative effects on cognitive function, which are not entirely offset by menopausal hormone treatment.” – Daily Mail