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Do Pregnancy-Induced Brain Changes Reverse? The Brain of a Mother Six Years after Parturition

Neuroimaging researchers commonly assume that the brain of a mother is comparable to that of a nulliparous woman. However, pregnancy leads to pronounced gray matter volume reductions in the mother’s brain, which have been associated with maternal attachment towards the baby. Beyond two years postpar...

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Autores principales: Martínez-García, Magdalena, Paternina-Die, María, Barba-Müller, Erika, Martín de Blas, Daniel, Beumala, Laura, Cortizo, Romina, Pozzobon, Cristina, Marcos-Vidal, Luis, Fernández-Pena, Alberto, Picado, Marisol, Belmonte-Padilla, Elena, Massó-Rodriguez, Anna, Ballesteros, Agustin, Desco, Manuel, Vilarroya, Óscar, Hoekzema, Elseline, Carmona, Susanna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7912216/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33525512
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11020168
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author Martínez-García, Magdalena
Paternina-Die, María
Barba-Müller, Erika
Martín de Blas, Daniel
Beumala, Laura
Cortizo, Romina
Pozzobon, Cristina
Marcos-Vidal, Luis
Fernández-Pena, Alberto
Picado, Marisol
Belmonte-Padilla, Elena
Massó-Rodriguez, Anna
Ballesteros, Agustin
Desco, Manuel
Vilarroya, Óscar
Hoekzema, Elseline
Carmona, Susanna
author_facet Martínez-García, Magdalena
Paternina-Die, María
Barba-Müller, Erika
Martín de Blas, Daniel
Beumala, Laura
Cortizo, Romina
Pozzobon, Cristina
Marcos-Vidal, Luis
Fernández-Pena, Alberto
Picado, Marisol
Belmonte-Padilla, Elena
Massó-Rodriguez, Anna
Ballesteros, Agustin
Desco, Manuel
Vilarroya, Óscar
Hoekzema, Elseline
Carmona, Susanna
author_sort Martínez-García, Magdalena
collection PubMed
description Neuroimaging researchers commonly assume that the brain of a mother is comparable to that of a nulliparous woman. However, pregnancy leads to pronounced gray matter volume reductions in the mother’s brain, which have been associated with maternal attachment towards the baby. Beyond two years postpartum, no study has explored whether these brain changes are maintained or instead return to pre-pregnancy levels. The present study tested whether gray matter volume reductions detected in primiparous women are still present six years after parturition. Using data from a unique, prospective neuroimaging study, we compared the gray matter volume of 25 primiparous and 22 nulliparous women across three sessions: before conception (n = 25/22), during the first months of postpartum (n = 25/21), and at six years after parturition (n = 7/5). We found that most of the pregnancy-induced gray matter volume reductions persist six years after parturition (classifying women as having been pregnant or not with 91.67% of total accuracy). We also found that brain changes at six years postpartum are associated with measures of mother-to-infant attachment. These findings open the possibility that pregnancy-induced brain changes are permanent and encourage neuroimaging studies to routinely include pregnancy-related information as a relevant demographic variable.
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spelling pubmed-79122162021-02-28 Do Pregnancy-Induced Brain Changes Reverse? The Brain of a Mother Six Years after Parturition Martínez-García, Magdalena Paternina-Die, María Barba-Müller, Erika Martín de Blas, Daniel Beumala, Laura Cortizo, Romina Pozzobon, Cristina Marcos-Vidal, Luis Fernández-Pena, Alberto Picado, Marisol Belmonte-Padilla, Elena Massó-Rodriguez, Anna Ballesteros, Agustin Desco, Manuel Vilarroya, Óscar Hoekzema, Elseline Carmona, Susanna Brain Sci Article Neuroimaging researchers commonly assume that the brain of a mother is comparable to that of a nulliparous woman. However, pregnancy leads to pronounced gray matter volume reductions in the mother’s brain, which have been associated with maternal attachment towards the baby. Beyond two years postpartum, no study has explored whether these brain changes are maintained or instead return to pre-pregnancy levels. The present study tested whether gray matter volume reductions detected in primiparous women are still present six years after parturition. Using data from a unique, prospective neuroimaging study, we compared the gray matter volume of 25 primiparous and 22 nulliparous women across three sessions: before conception (n = 25/22), during the first months of postpartum (n = 25/21), and at six years after parturition (n = 7/5). We found that most of the pregnancy-induced gray matter volume reductions persist six years after parturition (classifying women as having been pregnant or not with 91.67% of total accuracy). We also found that brain changes at six years postpartum are associated with measures of mother-to-infant attachment. These findings open the possibility that pregnancy-induced brain changes are permanent and encourage neuroimaging studies to routinely include pregnancy-related information as a relevant demographic variable. MDPI 2021-01-28 /pmc/articles/PMC7912216/ /pubmed/33525512 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11020168 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Martínez-García, Magdalena
Paternina-Die, María
Barba-Müller, Erika
Martín de Blas, Daniel
Beumala, Laura
Cortizo, Romina
Pozzobon, Cristina
Marcos-Vidal, Luis
Fernández-Pena, Alberto
Picado, Marisol
Belmonte-Padilla, Elena
Massó-Rodriguez, Anna
Ballesteros, Agustin
Desco, Manuel
Vilarroya, Óscar
Hoekzema, Elseline
Carmona, Susanna
Do Pregnancy-Induced Brain Changes Reverse? The Brain of a Mother Six Years after Parturition
title Do Pregnancy-Induced Brain Changes Reverse? The Brain of a Mother Six Years after Parturition
title_full Do Pregnancy-Induced Brain Changes Reverse? The Brain of a Mother Six Years after Parturition
title_fullStr Do Pregnancy-Induced Brain Changes Reverse? The Brain of a Mother Six Years after Parturition
title_full_unstemmed Do Pregnancy-Induced Brain Changes Reverse? The Brain of a Mother Six Years after Parturition
title_short Do Pregnancy-Induced Brain Changes Reverse? The Brain of a Mother Six Years after Parturition
title_sort do pregnancy-induced brain changes reverse? the brain of a mother six years after parturition
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7912216/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33525512
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11020168
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