Motherhood Changes Your Brain Function, New Research Says
From the archive. This post was first published on the original Green Eggs and Moms blog and is kept here as it was.
New moms can agree that her child’s cries are akin to invisible strings tugging at her. Newborns have this undeniable effect on mothers. But did you ever wonder why? Call it maternal instincts or whatever you like, but there is definitely no magic going on here.
A study conducted by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem concluded that a mother’s brain functions are altered by, well, motherhood. Specifically the olfactory and auditory cortices, responsible for processing smell and sound respectively.
The study. Researchers experimented on 3 different groups of mice: moms who interacted with their babies, lactating moms and moms who did not birth pups. All were exposed to baby odors and sounds.
The results. Moms who interacted with their babies showed a higher brain response to the pup odors, while lactating moms were found to be sensitive to pup cries.
The case of the lactating mouse moms may shed light on why new human mother’s feel the immediate need to respond to their baby’s cries, or as the study refers to it, “distress calls”. It’s a wired-in response that kicks in.
So yes, motherhood does change a woman. Quite literally. I suppose it’s an evolutionary trait that ensures the survival of any and all species.
Photo: Creative Commons from Digital Shotgun
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