Squeezed in alongside their main projects, the investigation took eight years and included dozens of participants. The results, published in 2016, were revelatory [1]. Two to three months after giving birth, multiple regions of the cerebral cortex were, on average, 2% smaller than before conception. And most of them remained smaller two years later. Although shrinkage might evoke the idea of a deficit, the team showed that the degree of cortical reduction predicted the strength of a mother’s attachment to her infant, and proposed that pregnancy prepares the brain for parenthood.

[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.4458

[–] The_v@lemmy.world 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So you've got to be dumbed down a little to love the little monsters... Checks out.

[–] Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago

Don't forget the bone density loss from having such a large parasite for 9 months.

[–] cashmaggot@piefed.social 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I read the whole thing, but I am also getting sleepy so I am not sure if I missed it. But did it say anywhere what directly caused the issue? I kept seeing them point to hormones and in theory (if I read this right) most of the brain returns back to normal post-pregnancy but that pre-dispositions for mental illness might be a cause of them not? And that the empathic network of our brain sort of remains scrunched perminantly? This is a poor summary, but that's how all I read it.

But the thing I was wondering if perhaps a nutritional deficit causes it? Because I know that forming a new body can be incredibly invasive. But I don't beleive children are little zombies that siphon brain matter. More so that perhaps that it is a very difficult game to keep up with nutritionally and then long-term malnutirition causes the brain to shrink. But also pain, which I believe I have read shrinks the brain when exposed to an extended time. I know that pregnancy is a series of uncomfortable pains. So perhaps that's a piece of the puzzle? I am not sure, just spitballing here.

[–] ArcticDagger@feddit.dk 2 points 3 months ago

I think those are all good questions that I don't think anyone really have conclusive answers to (yet). Hopefully the researchers will have the funds in the future to investigate those and more!