Recent research is challenging the widely held belief that the so-called ‘mummy brain’ is a negative stage in a woman’s life. The mummy brain is characterized by brain fog, difficulty concentrating, and remembering certain things. However, studies suggest that it should be viewed as adaptive “pruning” rather than a decrease in cognitive function. Significant neurological and brain changes in pregnancy are well documented, but the reduced brain volumes have been linked to greater self-reported maternal attachment and increased brain activation associated with viewing their babies’ images. Although up to one in five women will experience postnatal depression, perinatal anxiety, and mood disorders, the causes are not well understood, and there is no clear picture of what successful adaptation looks like during this time. Investigating the period of pregnancy and the postnatal period with an open mind is crucial to understanding mood disorders and anxiety during this time.
As soon as a woman becomes pregnant, it is highly likely that she or someone else will comment on her so-called “baby brain” or “mummy brain.” The condition is characterized by brain fog, difficulty concentrating, and remembering certain things, and it has long been used by mothers as an excuse (“sorry, I left the keys in the front door”) and as a means of belittling a woman’s intellect and ability to perform at work. However, researchers are now disputing the notion that the mummy brain is a negative phase in a woman’s life and suggesting that it should be viewed as adaptive “pruning” rather than a decrease in cognitive function.
Dr. Clare McCormack, an Australian research assistant professor at NYU Langone Health, has been studying the mummy brain for years. She has discovered that the key to understanding the process of becoming a mother, also known as matrescence, is to look at similar studies in animals. In the animal kingdom, the questions asked are usually driven by an understanding of behaviour that appears out of nowhere. “How does this animal suddenly know how to be a parent?” In non-human literature, the emphasis is often on the positive adaptations of parenthood and how this shift in cognition and behaviour impacts neuroplasticity.
However, when it comes to humans, the perception that women’s brains turn to mush during and after pregnancy shapes the questions and tests used by scientists to measure these changes. “Science has been set up to find a deficit,” she says. “This means that research questions go looking for the deficit, and as such set up specific memory tests comparing new mothers with non-mothers in a lab setting that usually benefits the non-mothers.”
McCormack’s research, recently published in JAMA Neurology, urges us to examine the validity of testing pregnant and new mothers’ memories using tests that examine subjects and items that are less relevant to these women’s life experiences, rather than more “ecologically relevant” stimuli and tasks. “We developed a memory test that uses items that are relevant to your environment. In this case, it was a mixture of items related to parenting, such as images and words about parenting and baby-related things,” she explains.
Recent research is challenging the widely held belief that the so-called ‘mummy brain’ is a negative stage in a woman’s life. Characterized by brain fog, difficulty concentrating, and remembering certain things, the mummy brain has been used for decades as an excuse by mothers and to belittle a woman’s intellect and ability to perform at work.
However, Dr. Clare McCormack, an Australian research assistant professor at NYU Langone Health, argues that it should be viewed as adaptive “pruning” rather than a decrease in cognitive function. She points out that the perception that women’s brains turn to mush during and after pregnancy shapes the questions and tests used by scientists to measure these changes. Science has been set up to find a deficit, which means that research questions go looking for the deficit, and as such set up specific memory tests comparing new mothers with non-mothers in a lab setting that usually benefits the non-mothers.
McCormack’s research, recently published in JAMA Neurology, suggests that testing pregnant and new mothers’ memories using tests that examine subjects and items that are less relevant to these women’s life experiences, rather than more “ecologically relevant” stimuli and tasks, is more valid. They developed a memory test using items that are relevant to a mother’s environment, such as images and words about parenting and baby-related things. The results of the study showed that pregnant women experienced a boost in learning when it came to remembering these items and performed better than non-parents in long-term memory tests.
The study is not about debunking the mummy brain myth, significant neurological and brain changes in pregnancy are well documented. A 2016 Nature study found that the grey matter in the brains of women who have recently given birth, which plays a role in tasks such as hearing, seeing, processing memories and decision making, seemed to be reduced in certain areas, and those changes lasted for up to two years after birth.
However, University of Melbourne Associate professor Olivia Carter, who conducted the study, explains that the reduced brain volumes correlated with greater self-reported maternal attachment to their babies and increased brain activation associated with viewing their babies’ images. Another recent Australian study carried out by Dr Winnie Orchard and Associate Professor Sharna Jamadar from the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health at Monash University found that new mothers perform a little worse on memory tests than non-mothers only if they think they have a bad case of the mummy brain.
Jamadar believes that the mummy brain is more to do with being overworked, tired, and anxious rather than some structural deficit. For McCormack, thinking that pregnant women and new mums don’t have brains “capable of intellect” is devaluing the role of a caregiver. While there are significant neurological and brain changes during and after pregnancy, research has shown that the mummy brain may be an adaptive “pruning” rather than a negative phase in a woman’s life.
According to Dr. Clare McCormack, caregiving involves many valuable skills that are also valuable in the workplace, including empathy, multitasking, self-regulation, and sensitivity. She believes that investigating the period of pregnancy and the postnatal period with an open mind, rather than being influenced by social and cultural factors, is crucial to understanding mood disorders and anxiety during this time. As many as one in five women will experience postnatal depression, perinatal anxiety, and mood disorders, which can have lasting impacts on the mother and baby. Unfortunately, due to a gap in research, the causes are not well understood, and there is no clear picture of what successful adaptation looks like during this time. McCormack emphasizes the importance of understanding what a “well-adapted” brain looks like and what the optimum level of cognitive change is to predict who will develop PND.
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