Motherhood Changes Brain Function

Israeli scientists have found that motherhood so strongly influences a woman‘s body that it even partially changes some of the brain functions.

The experts from Hebrew University in Jerusalem found that the brain changes, particularly associated with the perception of smells and sounds, help mothers to communicate with their babies, and especially to recognize the incoming signals from kids when they are asking for help.

Dr. Adi Mizrahi and his colleagues conducted tests on mice. For instance, they have investigated whether the primary auditory cortex of adult mice – a part of brain that is involved in the analysis of sounds – can serve for processing responses to the smell of young mice and their voice.

In the course of the research, the scientists have discovered that simple mice and mother mice reacted to the smell of mousekins differently. In particular, mothers demonstrated the connection between the processing of olfactory and auditory information. As the scientists have discovered, the mice did not have this quality, but rather acquired it after the birth of baby mice.

Source of the image: Photl.