'Baby brain' is a myth - women's intelligence increases during motherhood, claims study
The popular belief that pregnancy addles(v.使混乱,使糊涂) women's brains is a myth, a comprehensive study suggests.
Mothers claim to have suffered 'baby brain' or 'preg head', characterised by lapses(n.流失，丧失) in memory or logical thinking.
But researchers who tracked 2,500 women over ten years found no difference between their brainpower before and during their pregnancies.
In fact, the scientists believe, pregnancy and motherhood could actually improve women's mental abilities - and the improvement may be permanent.
Previous studies have claimed that pregnant women's brains decline in size and that they consistently perform worse than other women on tests for memory and verbal skills.
They have suggested that the difference could be as great as comparing the mental ability of someone aged 20 with someone aged 60.
But Professor Helen Christensen, of the Australian National University in Canberra, said her study is superior to previous research because it compares the same women before and during pregnancy.
'We found that women who were pregnant during the second or third batch of interviews performed the same on tests of logic and memory as they did before, and there was no difference between the pregnant women and the controls,' she said.
'It really leaves the question open as to why women think they have poor memories, when the best evidence we have is that they don't.
'Perhaps women notice minor lapses in mental ability and then attribute it to being pregnant because that is the most significant thing in their mind at the time. Or sleep deprivation(n.掠夺，缺失) could mask the positive cognitive(adj.认知的) effects.'
