| Title: | Population-based neuroimaging reveals traces of childbirth in the maternal brain |
| Journal: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
| Published: | 15 Oct 2019 |
| Pubmed: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31615888/ |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910666116 |
| URL: | https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/116/44/22341.full.pdf |
| Citations: | 117 (55 in last 2 years) as of 8 Aug 2024 |
Publication 5586
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Abstract
Maternal brain adaptations have been found across pregnancy and postpartum, but little is known about the long-term effects of parity on the maternal brain. Using neuroimaging and machine learning, we investigated structural brain characteristics in 12,021 middle-aged women from the UK Biobank, demonstrating that parous women showed less evidence of brain aging compared to their nulliparous peers. The relationship between childbirths and a "younger-looking" brain could not be explained by common genetic variation or relevant confounders. Although prospective longitudinal studies are needed, the results suggest that parity may involve neural changes that could influence women's brain aging later in life.</p>
8 Keywords
- Adaptation, Physiological
- Aged
- Brain
- Female
- Humans
- Machine Learning
- Middle Aged
- Parturition
9 Authors
- Ann-Marie G. de Lange
- Tobias Kaufmann
- Dennis van der Meer
- Luigi A. Maglanoc
- Dag Alnæs
- Torgeir Moberget
- Gwenaëlle Douaud
- Ole A. Andreassen
- Lars T. Westlye
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