Have you ever opened the refrigerator to find your keys or stuck for a few seconds on a seemingly banal word? These little hiccups often tend to worry during pregnancy. However, according to recent work relayed by Dr Laure Einaudi, obstetrician-gynecologist, they could be the sign of a brain in full reorganization rather than a decline in capacity.
Researchers now observe that pregnancy causes visible changes in the maternal brain, including on MRI. Certain areas linked to emotions, attention and social interactions evolve to prepare for the baby’s arrival and support the new needs of motherhood.
Pregnancy brain actually changes certain brain areas
“Ladies, you’re not going crazy, you’re just pregnant“. This sentence from Dr Laure Einaudi summarizes a phenomenon that has long been reduced to a simple “mental fog”.
However, studies show that pregnancy causes significant structural changes. Researchers have observed a decrease in the volume of gray matter in several regions of the brain, accompanied by an increase in the organization of certain neuronal connections. These transformations appear gradually during pregnancy and some remain visible after birth.
These adaptations would particularly concern the circuits involved in empathy, reading emotions and understanding social signals, valuable functions in meeting the needs of an infant.
“Certain areas are pruned to make room for a more efficient and attentive version of yourself“.
Each pregnancy could lead to new adjustments in the maternal brain
The first pregnancy would not be the only moment of transformation. Observations suggest that with each new gestation, the brain continues its adjustments.
According to the explanations relayed by Dr Laure Einaudi, a second pregnancy could put greater strain on areas linked to vigilance, the management of stimuli and the coordination of several simultaneous tasks.
“This process repeats itself“, she says.
This idea is consistent with more recent work showing that subsequent pregnancies seem to reshape certain brain networks differently, notably those linked to attention and sensory functions.
So the next forgotten word or missed appointment may not be a sign that your brain is slowing down. It is possible that he is busy reorganizing himself.