Knowledge gap about women's brains: New study examines biological turning points

Before Sophie van 't Hof began researching this area, she thought that most was known about the brains of pregnant women. But the doctoral student was surprised. She was soon “shocked to discover how little we knew about it,” says the neuroscientist in a press interview in which she presented her new study. A huge gap in knowledge about one of the biggest biological turning points in a woman's life. And at other turning points the gap is even larger.

Van 't Hof is currently filling it with knowledge. She works at the Pregnancy Brain Lab, part of the University of Amsterdam. There she studies women's brains. Specifically, in their new study, the brain scans of 1,095 women at three key life stages: when they are young, at the start of puberty; if you are an adult and are expecting a child; if you can no longer get pregnant naturally. Together with four other researchers, van 't Hof studied the scans before and after the women and girls reported their first period, their pregnancy or their last period - and compared them with other women in the age group.