Pregnancy leads to changes in the brain functional network: a connectome analysis

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Pregnancy induces profound physiological and psychological changes.
• Long-lasting structural brain alterations post-pregnancy are known.
• The impact of pregnancy on functional brain network topology remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of pregnancy on the topological organization of human brain functional networks.
• To compare functional brain network properties between primiparous mothers and nulliparous controls.

Main Methods:

• Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data acquisition.
• Functional brain network construction and topological analysis using the GRETNA toolbox.
• Statistical comparison of network metrics using non-parametric permutation tests and network-based statistics (NBS).

Main Results:

• Primiparous mothers exhibited altered functional network topology, including a shift in a key brain hub.
• While maintaining small-world properties, primiparous mothers showed decreased sigma values compared to controls.
• Network-based statistics revealed significant alterations in sub-networks within the bilateral frontal lobe gyrus in mothers.

Conclusions:

• Pregnancy is associated with significant changes in brain functional network organization and topology.
• These findings suggest that pregnancy can lead to measurable alterations in the brain's functional architecture.
• Further research is warranted to understand the long-term implications of these pregnancy-induced brain changes.