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Pregnancy Alters Woman's Brains 'For At Least Two Years' (bbc.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the baby-brain dept.

EzInKy writes: The BBC and others are reporting the results of a study that women's brains do in fact change during pregnancy. BBC reports: "Pregnancy reduces grey matter in specific parts of a woman's brain, helping her bond with her baby and prepare for the demands of motherhood. Scans of 25 first-time mums showed these structural brain changes lasted for at least two years after giving birth. European researchers said the scale of brain changes during pregnancy were akin to those seen during adolescence. But they found no evidence of women's memory deteriorating. This study, from researchers at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and Leiden University and published in Nature Neuroscience, looked at the brain scans of women before they became pregnant, soon after they gave birth, and two years later, to see how the brain changed. And they compared these women's brains with those of 19 first-time fathers, 17 men without children and 20 women who had never given birth. The researchers found 'substantial' reductions in the volume of grey matter in the brains of first-time mothers. The grey matter changes occurred in areas of the brain involved in social interactions used for attributing thoughts and feelings to other people -- known as 'theory-of-mind' tasks. The researchers thought this would give new mothers an advantage in various ways - help them recognize the needs of their child, be more aware of potential social threats and become more attached to their baby." Thanks Mom! As for first-time fathers, the researchers found no changes in their grey matter.

27 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. Oh well... by x0ra · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So much for the feminazis out there claiming that there is no difference between a male and female brain, and that what constitute gender is nothing but a social construct.

    1. Re:Oh well... by x0ra · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If there was no feminazi, Brianna Wu, Anita Sarkeesian, Zoë Quinn, or even freebsdgirl wouldn't spur their venom trying to forbid the games I have fun to play with.

    2. Re:Oh well... by Mashiki · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Nice flamebait. First of all, there are no Feminazi's

      No? You should let them know this. They exist, some of them are such shitty people that they've made it to meme status like big red there.

      That derogatory term is mostly used by male chauvinists who want to enforce old fashioned gender -roles-. There are feminists, and they hold various ideas about equality.

      You mean like the feminists out there that push that women should have nice cushy jobs in offices because "equality" while they don't push them into the nice shitty jobs where you're likely to be killed? You know, fishing, mining and so on. Or those nice shitty well paying jobs that are simply shitty jobs?

      Strange that I remember the big feminist push in the late 80's and early 90's to drive men out of teaching here in the west too(fyi it's now so bad in parts of western countries that men make up less then 8% of teaching staff). They were the original source of the "men are rapists and not safe with children" bit. Then there's the "teach men not to rape" bullshit to boot. But we'll just gloss over the 20-40% rate of women(varies by sexual preference) who are rapists, or that they get much lighter sentence. Usually 1/3 of the sentence of what a man would, even against a minor. What? You didn't know that there were female pedophile rapists? Not even touching stuff like the rape and murders committed by Bernardo and Homolka. FYI she was the instigator in those 30+ cases, and was the one picking the victims.

      no feminist ever said that men and woman were created biologically identical.

      You should pay more attention to the bullshit being pushed. You can even find it from the flappy headed ideology books that they push these days. There's even a huge bunch of bullshit by feminists trying to drive sexual dimorphism as "sexist." Yeah, google that one and weep at the attempts to destroy science.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    3. Re:Oh well... by Mashiki · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Please. Let them rant, as long as they do they at least don't harm anyone.

      Yeah, not in the least. We saw jackasses like Jack Thompson get some sway with the trendy fucks in the industry last time. We're seeing it again with Sarkeesian and her ilk, and the trendy fucks in the industry again. This is the garbage that eventually gets spawned out of it. Gamers on the other hand? They don't like identity politics being pushed into their medium. Just a FYI to anyone who's' reading, the stuff being pushed in the GI.biz article is the same BS that was pushed by people like Leigh Alexander. Another adherent to the "but muh progressiveness look at muh virtue signaling..." which lead to the death of her career.

      The whole progressive identity politics virtue signaling bullshit usually kills whatever it attaches to. It's doing a great job of killing comic books, it did a great job of killing atheism for a while until there was a push back. It attempted it in video games and failed, but they're still trying.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    4. Re:Oh well... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Does that mean the male brain is superior, being an evolved version of the female brain with more bits acting in concert to handle more-demanding intellectual problems; or that it is inferior, being a hobbled version with bits weakened and disconnected so as to interfere with cognition?

      Trigger warning - I'm replying about the story instead of the predictable direction the comments went.

      It isn't a matter of superior or inferior. A pregnant woman goes through a fair number of biological adjustments, and it isn't too surprising that some of them are in the brain. And a lot of men can attest to their wife becoming a rather different person after childbirth. While this may or may not present a problem for the male isn't totally relevant, as the changes are related to survival of the child on the mother's part.

      I suspect that these changes are more permanent than lasting only a couple years.

      But as to being superior or inferior, it isn't that. This goes a long way toward explaining some personality changes, and might even be tied into the unfortunate post-partum depression that affects some women.

      Mental superiority by gender is one of those ridiculous concepts just like racial superiority by some IQ test. Because even if it were somehow true, nothing could ever be determined about any individual's intelligence by looking at them and judging the intelligence by the person being male or female, light or dark skinned.

      And I don't even know how to address the weird transgender bender the discussion went on, so I'll leave it at that.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    5. Re:Oh well... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "In order to raise children with equality, we must take them away from families and communally raise them."
      -- Dr. Mary Jo Bane, feminist and assistant professor of education at Wellesley College and associate director of the school's Center for Research on Woman

      This is a feminazi.

      "You can grab them by the pussy"
      -- President Elect Donald Trump

      This is an incoming President of the United States

      Which asshole has more power to affect your world?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    6. Re:Oh well... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They're attention-whoring profit-seeking trolls, not feminazis. If it weren't feminism, it would be something else. Most people recognize that their brand of feminism is toxic. There's a huge difference between wanting ot be treated as equals and making a career out of dumping on men. You can include Germaine Greer in that latter group - a feminist well past her best before date stuck in an alternate future.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    7. Re:Oh well... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      What a strange world you live in, where the games industry agreed with Jack Thompson. As I recall the main reaction was to spoof him in a number of games and increase the violence levels with ever more realistic graphics.

      As for Sarkeesian, did you know she isn't actually against violence in games? You don't actually seem to have watched any of her videos, so I guess not. Anyway, Tropes vs Women seems to have been somewhat influential. Quite a few AAA games this year have had much better portrayals of women, especially sequels where the improvement is measurable. It doesn't seem to have hurt those games either. In fact many of the most highly rated ones, like Mass Effect, are also rated highly by feminists. Even the latest Mortal Kombat has more realistic female bodies now (for you to rip apart).

      Game developers pushed back against anti-feminists because the recognised Tropes vs. Women for what it is - a series of well made arguments and suggestions for changes that are often easy to make and invariably improve games.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    8. Re: Oh well... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

      Anita Sarkeesian

      Dude you are way too obsessed with her. I think you have a crush.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    9. Re:Oh well... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      Mashiki, the link you provided to an archive of the Feminist Frequency web site (unnecessary as the page has not been deleted) doesn't say anything about banning games. You just assume everyone who disagrees with you wants to ban you. It's a weird delusion you have.

      Have you watched "Lingerie is not Armour"? Sarkeesian specifically praises Chun Li as an example of a female character who is is involved in violence but has agency and isn't just a cheap victim used to add colour to the game. Chun Li is the equal of the other male characters, dresses somewhat sensibly by fighting game standards and while she has some issues (like Female Personality Disorder in the early games) being violent or receiving violence is not one of them.

      This is probably too nuanced for you, but it is actually possible to be admiring of a martial artists while still not liking gore fest horror movies, for example. And just in case you missed it, she didn't call for Doom to be banned either. Criticism is not calling for something to be banned.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    10. Re: Oh well... by EmeraldBot · · Score: 3, Informative

      Gender does not refer to self identity, that is a construct developed by supporters of transgender. Gender is analogous to sex which is encoded into DNA

      No, it's not. Sex is the biologically determined aspect of masculinity vs femininity; whether you possess certain organs, what your hormone levels are, and how your body develops. Gender is the socitial expectation for masculinity vs femininity; what jobs you're supposed to have, how you're supposed to dress, and in some cultures, how you speak. For example, we've always had males and females, and males have always had deeper voices; but only 100 years ago, pink was masculine and blue was feminine. Thus, even if you wore a blue shirt as a male in 1900, you'd still be a male by sex; but not very masculine by gender.

      And no, these concepts have been around for literally thousands of years. Until the extremo Christians of the middle ages entered, it was actually really normal for people to flirt with the gender lines; read some Roman or Greek poetry. I would love to see your reaction to the Roman emperor Nero's (biologically male) wife, or the widespread act of guys who had open and accepted affairs with other guys (while being both straight and married to women).

      --
      "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
    11. Re:Oh well... by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 2

      There's been numerous studies showing that people suffering depression tend to be better at various forms of contingency rating then non-depressed people. Rather than a sign of being immature, it's a sign of being realistic. Happiness depends on being delusional.

    12. Re:Oh well... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      Because even if it were somehow true, nothing could ever be determined about any individual's intelligence by looking at them and judging the intelligence by the person being male or female, light or dark skinned.

      Yes but the fundamental problem with that argument is this. Unless you possess the capability to reliably and efficiently assess individuals, than if there are real general trends toward superiority among groups, that it would absolutely make sense to discriminate based on those characteristics in cases where more deterministic data isn't available.

      So what you are saying is that you can definitely and without mistake, choose the best candidate for a job by gender of skin color.

      Sorry, thanks for playing. You have bought into the old political argument that you can make the porest stupidest white man feel as if he is superior to any and all Black people. It works, because the poor stupid white man cannot see that he is stupid, and if a person can tell him that he is superior to all blacks, then he will not only vote against his self interests, but happily open his wallet to those who tell him he is superior.

      You aren't even wrong, you are that poor white guy.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  2. Re:First post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow, mommy so proud. Keep it up, honey.

  3. Baby brain by RobinH · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All the moms around here call it "baby brain." The memory thing that most moms (and dads) experience just has to be sleep deprivation. When I did basic training they cut us back to 5 hours of sleep a night for weeks, but that was to show us that we could still function on that little sleep. When I became a father, I was getting two sessions of about 2 to 2.5 hours of sleep per night, for months. The latter was definitely much worse and affects everything - mood, work, and relationships. The mom also has (a) many more social pressures to be the "perfect" mom - (thanks Facebook), (b) tons of weird hormone changes going on, (c) physical trauma from the birth, (d) a weird combination of stress and mind numbing boredom, and (e) whatever this "baby brain" thing is. It absolutely sucks for her (and sometimes seems to manifest as anger), so she's going to take all that shit out on someone, and as the father you're the only one that's handy, so you get to grin and bear it. Over the course of several years things do improve a lot. It never goes back to the way things were though - sometimes too many things get said, too much animosity and frustration build up. People can hold grudges for a long time.

    Nobody can really be prepared for being a parent. Even if you're told all the stuff to expect, it doesn't sink in until you're actually in the situation, and at that point there's nothing you can do but take a deep breath and do your best.

    --
    "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
    1. Re:Baby brain by cerberusss · · Score: 2

      It absolutely sucks for her (and sometimes seems to manifest as anger), so she's going to take all that shit out on someone, and as the father you're the only one that's handy, so you get to grin and bear it.

      Although this happens a lot, I'm very reluctant to call it normal.

      If you love your partner, you don't take out your shit on him/her. When you get angry, you storm off and meditate a bit on it. There's this crazy notion that "someone has to bear the brunt of it". But well-balanced, emotionally developed adults know better.

      --
      8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
    2. Re:Baby brain by ByteSlicer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Reminds me of a study they did some years ago.
      When asked directly, parents would claim they derived much joy and happiness from their kids.
      But when asked those same parents indirectly, with some clever questions, the researchers found that the parents weren't nearly as happy as they claimed they were. Their kids caused them all kinds of stress and unhappiness.
      They concluded that those parents weren't necessarily lying during the questions, but that humans probably evolved a sort of delusional condition, so that they would believe kids made them happy, and so they kept procreating. Those that didn't have these delusions, obviously didn't have as much offspring, so there was a strong selection for the condition.

    3. Re:Baby brain by Kokuyo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Once again very late to this party but as a father of 2.5 year old twins who also had a major case of ulcerative colitis right when they were born I can only totally agree with you.

      I'd say the lack of sleep isn't even the major problem. You still function. However, the constant attention you pay them. Every little sound you hear. You never wind down. Your brain rests even less than your body.

      And when they scream in tandem or take shifts (and I am unable to decide which is worse!), your mental walls, your ability to restrain your emotions and function is severely tested.
      But worst of all? Children mirror you! Meaning you can't even distance yourself and go into zombie mode because that will really unhinge them and scream in a futile attempt to get their caregivers back instead of having zombies.

      It's a very vicious cycle. The only thing that saved as was honest conversation and admitting that we were in way over our heads, our fears and yes, even the regular fantasies of repeatedly throwing the kids against the nearest wall.

      Explaining raising children to childless people (and making them understand) is like explaining colors to a person born blind. It cannot be done.

      We had expected the work. It didn't faze us. We had expected the dirt, broken things and such. We were unprepared for the emotional, psychological warfare going on. Some of the shit parent sgo through is what makes Amnesty criticize Guantanamo! Only we chose this for ourselves! Can you imagine the regret?

      And the dichotomy.... Dude, the dichotomy kills you. While I would have gladly taken the opportunity a year ago to be transported back in time, before we had kids, not remember a thing but with the guarantee that we'd decide on not having them in the first place, I would have taken it in an instant. In contrast, had someone offered to just take them away so we could have our freedom back, I would have declined.

      As strange as it sounds, that is what being parents is all about. You ask yourself why you were ever stupid enough to do this thing but just stopping isn't an option either.

      One thing that has changed in a remarkable way is how I look at parents who break and do something drastic. A few months back a woman threw her kids out of a window from the tsecond or third floor. Kids survived without permanent damage.
      Before I had kids, I would have condemned the behaviour to the utmost. Now I just pity the parents. They were in a war for their sanity and lost a major battle. The moment they get a chance to reflect on it, I can only imagine the guilt and pain they must feel from the realization what they have done.

      A lot of people could do better as parents. However fuck me if it ain't the hardest job with the least possibility to prepare yourself for that I have ever encountered...

  4. Re:It explains the time dilation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yea, no those things have to eat every hour when they first come out and freak out when mom isn't around. The only way they get any normalcy back is through a great support structure, which comes from having a partner that doesn't make the kind of dumbass assumptions mentioned here..

  5. Re:It explains the time dilation by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

    Slashdot never fails to deliver.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  6. Re:Marxist BRAINFUCK by Maritz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The worst thing about being white is I have to share my "race" with dopey cunts like you.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  7. Force researchers to keep abreast of their field by ET3D · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's been shown the gay men's brain activity change when they become parents, matching in some ways changes in mothers' brains, and they definitely don't go through a pregnancy.

    The researchers could have compared to brains of women who got babies via a surrogate mother, which would have been more interesting, but they chose instead to compare to groups which obviously won't have relevant changes.

    Also, they looked at scans only before and after the pregnancy, which makes this research quite useless in determining changes during pregnancy. It could be that these changes occur at or near birth.

    All in all, looks to me like a waste of research money.

  8. Feminazis going after thought-criminals by mi · · Score: 5, Informative

    And who gives a shit about their opinion?

    An otherwise perfectly qualified man has lost his job of running Harvard University for merely suggesting, men and women could be different in some respects:

    Last year [2005 -mi], Summers sparked international outrage by speculating at an economics conference that innate differences between men and women might be one of the reasons women lag behind in science and math careers.

    Even closer to the point in TFA, this year Donald Trump was widely denounced for stating (back in 2004), that an employee's pregnancy is an inconvenience for the employer. Hillary Clinton, portraying herself as a pillar of feminism (pay no attention to her husband's sexual predations), chose to use that obvious and unremarkable true statement to attack her opponent.

    You may think, no one "gives a shit", but her billion-dollar campaign did enough research to believe, there is enough of an audience, who'll defecate bricks over it. And they did...

    Please. Let them rant

    Nobody intends to stop "faminazis" from exercising their First Amendment rights. We are just pointing out, their rants are wrong.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  9. Re:It explains the time dilation by IMightB · · Score: 2

    No shit... Either this comment was made by a childless douchebag or he's in the running for world's shittiest baby daddy. That being said, after pushing out two for me, my wife did start exercising while I took care of my boys. Now she looks amazing, weighs less than before the kiddos, and I get lots of loving.

  10. Re:Personal recollection by kria · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My husband recently suggested I start making a list of computer games that look like they would be fun so I can play them in 10-15 years... ;) (I have a two year old with a new baby coming in February.) We're going to try to see our second movie at the theater since she was born on this coming Thursday; both Stars Wars movies, which seem like the kind that you just have to see on the big screen.

    Rather than make a new comment elsewhere, particularly with all of the vitriol being spewed on this thread, I'll also add that pregnancy hormones really, really suck as someone with an engineer's brain. Imagine that you suddenly burst into tears for relatively minor things being wrong, or occasionally for NO REAL REASON. It's horrible.

  11. Re:Personal recollection by ContextSwitch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Heh yes! I remember converstations which went:

    Me: "What's wrong?"

    Her: "Nothing."

    Me: "Then why are you crying?"

    Her: "I DON'T KNOW"

    I remember being totally bewildered by these types of conversation, the sudden mood changes and, what seemed to me to be changes in basic character. I also remember being in awe by how much hormones can affect a person's personality and even being somewhat afraid that her personality would be changed forever from the person I'd married. Thankfully, it wasn't.

  12. Re:Marxist BRAINFUCK by Vitriol+Angst · · Score: 2

    Henceforth, I want to racially identify myself as "off-white" to allow others to separate me from the "alt-right."

    Power to the beige people!

    --
    >>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"