Birth control pills boost the same hormones, I wonder if they would have similar affects on the brain.
Pregnancy alters woman's brain 'for at least two years'
81–90 of 138 posts
Re: Pregnancy alters woman's brain 'for at least two years'
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
FWIW my wife underwent a drastic personality change after giving birth, and I would definitely agree with this being one of the symptoms. But just one data point of course.
What was the change?
The part of my experience that seemed relevant to the article:
areas of the brain involved in social interactions used for attributing thoughts and feelings to other people - known as "theory-of-mind" tasks
...was that I noticed she wouldn't differentiate between whether something had actually happened or not. For example, she could get quite angry at someone for something they didn't do, just thinking they "might" do it.
Then again, maybe this personality aspect had been there all along and I had never noticed until the additional stress of having a new baby.
EDIT: Please don't downvote me for answering a question.
Re: Pregnancy alters woman's brain 'for at least two years'
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
FWIW my wife underwent a drastic personality change after giving birth, and I would definitely agree with this being one of the symptoms. But just one data point of course.
I really don't want this to come across as rude, because I don't mean to single you out or invalidate your experience (or your contribution to discussion!). That said, what is the purpose of offering your anecdotal experience if you acknowledge that it is an n=1 datapoint? I understand that it's in good faith to acknowledge that your personal experience doesn't offer any statistical rigor to an interpretation of the…
As long as people realize it doesn't prove anything, there's still some value to it. Sure, it's not following proper scientific methods, but HN comments are not for peer-reviewing scientific findings. Sometimes, readers may benefit from having a conversation with a human behind that n=1 data point.
Re: Pregnancy alters woman's brain 'for at least two years'
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
FWIW my wife underwent a drastic personality change after giving birth, and I would definitely agree with this being one of the symptoms. But just one data point of course.
I really don't want this to come across as rude, because I don't mean to single you out or invalidate your experience (or your contribution to discussion!). That said, what is the purpose of offering your anecdotal experience if you acknowledge that it is an n=1 datapoint? I understand that it's in good faith to acknowledge that your personal experience doesn't offer any statistical rigor to an interpretation of the…
Dsacco, I want to praise you for writing the best response to the casual "my experience doesn't match some study X" that I've ever seen.
Re: Pregnancy alters woman's brain 'for at least two years'
#85I had the baby while at university, and it's true. While I was always brilliant in math and physics, I couldn't do simple things anymore. That was very frustrating. Thanks god the physics professor was very forgiving as he noticed the change
It was probably more about sleep deprivation, chronic stress, and immediate reprioritization in your life, more than anything. It's hard to focus on learning new tasks when you're tired, and you're forced to confront a million new things at home. The study just said that, in small areas of the brain, gray matter was reduced, and they theorized that this specialization helped a new mother recognize her infant and its…
From conversations I've had with several mothers, it's not just sleep deprivation, there's a fog that someone else here called "baby brain".
This article suggests a physical reason why that is so, as well.
Re: Pregnancy alters woman's brain 'for at least two years'
#86My wife and I both took our Professional Engineering Exams (8 hour test that is brutally hard) and she was 6 mo pregnant and still passed while I failed. I really feel dumb now.
How does this research imply that there's any effect on a pregnant woman/new mother's ability to take a PE exam? The study talks about a gray matter reduction in small areas of the brain associated with social interaction. Based on other experiments, they further theorized that this may be a tool to help the mother quickly recognize her infant and assess its needs. Has nothing to do with engineering...
It doesn't. I poorly skimmed it too quickly. She probably had 20+ coworkers tell her she would fail due to pregnancy-brain though, so it was nice to see her pass lol.
Re: Pregnancy alters woman's brain 'for at least two years'
#87Birth control pills boost the same hormones, I wonder if they would have similar affects on the brain.
Underrated comment, I would be very interested in a study on this.
Re: Pregnancy alters woman's brain 'for at least two years'
#88Anecdotally I can say it has a large effect on the male brain too. The lack of sleep and time changes you. You get ruthless against time stealers and start seeing 6 hours as a nice long sleep. Full disclosure : I've had about 8hr sleep in 3 days,two sick kids...
Your lifestyle might change because you have a baby, but (within the scope of this research) pregnancy does not have an effect on the male brain.
Re: Pregnancy alters woman's brain 'for at least two years'
#89Re: Pregnancy alters woman's brain 'for at least two years'
#90Anecdotally I can say it has a large effect on the male brain too. The lack of sleep and time changes you. You get ruthless against time stealers and start seeing 6 hours as a nice long sleep. Full disclosure : I've had about 8hr sleep in 3 days,two sick kids...
Your lifestyle might change because you have a baby, but (within the scope of this research) pregnancy does not have an effect on the male brain.
please recalibrate your irony detector. Thank you.