Scientists Show How Pregnancy Changes The Brain In Innumerable Ways

Neuroscientist Liz Chrastil got the unique chance to see how her brain changed while she was pregnant and share what she learned in a new study that offers the first detailed map of a woman's brain throughout gestation .

The transition to motherhood , researchers discovered, affects nearly every part of the brain .

Although the study looks at only one person, it kicks off a large, international research project that aims to scan the brains of hundreds of women and could one day provide clues about disorders like postpartum depression.

"It's been a very long journey," said Chrastil, co-author of the paper published Monday in Nature Neuroscience. "We did 26 scans before, during and after pregnancy" and found 'some really remarkable things."

More than 80 of the regions studied had reductions in the volume of gray matter, where thinking takes place. This is an average of about 4 of the brain - nearly identical to a reduction that happens during puberty. While less gray matter may sound bad, researchers said it probably isn't it likely reflects the fine-tuning of networks of interconnected nerve cells called "neural circuits" to prepare for a new phase of life.