Parenthood has often been associated with stress and fatigue, visible in external signs like wrinkles and gray hair. However, a recent study has shown that raising children may have a positive effect on the brain, helping to preserve its youth and enhance cognitive functions.
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According to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the brains of parents exhibited stronger patterns of "functional connectivity" between different brain regions, which contrasts with the usual decline in these patterns as people age.
The study also found that this effect increases with each new child and can last for a long period.
How Does Parenthood Affect the Brain?
Edwina Orchard, a researcher at the Child Study Center at Yale University and a study participant, explained that "functional connectivity" is a measure of how different parts of the brain communicate with each other.
She pointed out that these patterns typically change with age, but in the case of parents, an opposite trend was observed, where their brains seemed to retain more youthful characteristics.
Michelle Deplasi, the head of the Department of Psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center, told Health that these results make sense because parenthood is a critical period during which the brain undergoes significant changes to adapt to new responsibilities, complex social interactions, and the challenges of raising children.
Brain Imaging Analysis
To reach these findings, the study analyzed MRI scans of over 37,000 individuals, making it one of the largest studies in this field. The sample included men and women aged 40 to 69 from the UK Biobank.
Information about the participants’ number of children, age, gender, educational level, and economic status was gathered, and the functional connectivity patterns between the brains of parents and non-parents were compared.
The results showed that certain areas in the brains of parents retained strong connectivity patterns, particularly regions associated with social communication, empathy, and coordination between the brain and body movement.
Deplasi clarified that these areas are indicators of brain health and typically decline with age, suggesting that parenthood could play a role in protecting the brain from deterioration.
Does the Effect Apply to All Parents?
It is important to note that the study did not conclusively prove that parenthood is the direct cause of these brain changes but found a correlation. The study only included biological mothers and fathers in the UK, meaning the results may not apply to all types of families or parental roles.
Orchard mentioned that further long-term research, involving participants from diverse backgrounds, is needed to better understand how parenthood affects the brain in more detail.
Neurologist Andrew Thaliath noted that brain changes may also be influenced by environmental and social factors linked to parenthood. He explained that parents are exposed to more sensory stimuli when caring for children, such as reading facial expressions and responding to non-verbal cues, which could enhance communication between brain regions.
Orchard added that parents with more than one child often have to meet multiple needs at once, which requires high behavioral flexibility, and this may be one of the factors contributing to enhanced brain functions.
