Population-based neuroimaging reveals traces of childbirth in the maternal brain

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 116; no. 44; pp. 22341 - 22346
• Main Authors: de Lange, Ann-Marie G., Kaufmann, Tobias, van der Meer, Dennis, Maglanoc, Luigi A., Alnæs, Dag, Moberget, Torgeir, Douaud, Gwenaëlle, Andreassen, Ole A., Westlye, Lars T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 29.10.2019
• Subjects: Adaptation; Adaptation, Physiological; Aged; Aging; Biological Sciences; Brain; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - physiology; Childbirth & labor; Correlation analysis; Female; Genetic diversity; Health risk assessment; Humans; Learning algorithms; Long-term effects; Longitudinal studies; Machine Learning; Medical imaging; Middle Aged; Neuroimaging; Neurology; Parity; Parturition; Postpartum; Pregnancy; Womens health; brain imaging; pregnancy and childbirth; genetics; machine learning
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1910666116

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.