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Sex Makes Your Brain Grow
McLuhanesque writes "The Globe and Mail is reporting the findings of two researchers that "Mating triggers the development of new neurons in the smell centre of the brain, a finding researchers hope will provide clues on how to trick other parts of the vital organ to repair themselves after injuries caused by strokes or head traumas. ... Dr. Weiss and his colleagues discovered that prolactin levels -- and consequently new neuron production -- surge after mating ... And they found that if prolactin was introduced to the blood system by injection, it also stimulated production of new neurons for the olfactory bulb." For those with a subscription to Science, the abstract of the full article is here ."
Sounds like somebody is making a commission off of new subscriptions to "Science". What bothers me is that the frequency of blatent 'this is an advertisement' stories on this site is growing so fast...
Perhaps having sex often would give you the extra olfactory neurons needed to be a wine connoisseur or a perfume tester.
Finding out what controls the migration to the olfactory bulb would also be nice, especially if the mechanism could be hijacked to direct the neurons elsewhere. Cure Alzheimer's disease by having sex? Cram for a test by watching certain videos?
It might be interesting to see if the brain has its own mechanisms for directing the stem cells to places that need them. Suppose damage itself is a trigger for migration? Perhaps prolactin injections alone could alleviate stroke damage by stepping up the stem cell production, with the new stem cells migrating to the damaged area.
Maybe the reason spinal cord injuries are so hard to heal is that people paralyzed from the neck down get less sex than they used to?
That would be an interesting grant proposal...
Free book: Science Toys You Can Make
We knew right away when my wife got pregnant this time. Before she had even missed her first period her sense smell had gone into overdrive. Last time she couldn't even go into the meat department in the grocery store. Yesterday she was sniffing our 18mth old daughter and telling me how good she smelled. Fortunately I haven't had to take over all the diaper changing of our toddler yet. But I wouldn't be surprised if that is coming soon.
I think it is a self-preservation thing in that helps prevent her from eating spoiled meat or moldy fruit - she can smell these from across the room.
However as to making you smarter, any gain in brain capacity during pregnancy more than lost in memory function after childbirth. Most new mothers blame this on lack of sleep, but I think there is likely a hormonal aspect to it as well.