科学美国人60秒 怀孕使大脑为做母亲做好准备

Pregnancy¹ brings big physical changes to a woman's body. But what three neuroscientists were more interested in was, what does it do to the woman’s brain? "We were in our 30s, and we were thinking I'd like to have a baby, but look at this, look at this." Susana Carmona, a neuroscientist at the University of Carlos the Third in Madrid.

怀孕会给女性带来巨大的生理变化。但是，有三位神经学家却对怀孕会给女性的大脑带来的影响更感兴趣。“我们已经三十多岁了，都正在考虑生小孩，但是，看看这个。”苏珊娜·卡尔莫纳是马德里卡洛斯三世大学的神经医学家。

"And then we realized most of this data came from animal studies. And that there were no solid studies about what really happens to your brain when you get pregnant. And that's how we convinced the boss we should do that even without any funding at this point."

然后我们意识到大多数据都是来自于对动物的研究。而对于人体怀孕后，大脑所发生的变化，没有可信的研究。这就是我们说服负责人现在应该进行该研究，即使没有任何的资金。

Carmona and her team took MRI scans of 25 women's brains, before and after their first child. They found that parts of the brain dealing² with social cognition actually shrunk—reduced in volume—in women who successfully conceived and had kids. That's compared to no changes among control women, and no changes in men—whether they were new fathers or not.

卡尔莫纳和她的团队分别对25位女性孕前以及生完第一胎之后，对她们的大脑进行了核磁共振扫描。他们发现，对于那些已经成功怀孕并且已经生下宝宝的女性，大脑处理社会认知的部分的确减弱了——体积减少了。而对于未孕女性而言，没有任何变化。同时对于男性，无论他们是否新晋升为爸爸，也没有任何变化。

Shrinking sounds bad though: why would you want less grey matter? But Carmona says less does not result in deficits³ in thinking or memory, and might actually be the result of a good thing: the fine-tuning of connections between neurons. "When you have a lot of routes that arrive to a different place, and there's one that is the shorter and the faster one, the optimal⁴ thing would be to close the rest so you never get lost, from point A to point B."

大脑萎缩听起来非常的糟糕：为什么灰质会减少呢?但是卡尔莫纳表示，灰质减少可能不会引起思维迟钝或者记忆力减退，可能是由于一件不错事情发生的：神经元细胞连接的微调。“当你有众多的路线到达不同的地方，而有一条路线非常的便捷，最优的方案就是去掉其他可能让你迷路的其他录像。”

Hormonal⁵ fluxes⁶ cause similar fine-tuning in the adolescent brain—and hormones⁷ might be the culprit for these changes as well. Changes that can last at least two years after pregnancy. The study is in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

荷尔蒙的通量会导致青少年的大脑发生类似的微调——荷尔蒙可能也是孕妇大脑发生变化的罪魁祸首。这些变化会在怀孕之后持续至少两年之久。该研究结果发表在《自然神经科学》杂志上。

The effect of all this? Could be a boost in maternal⁸ attachment⁹. Fewer hostile feelings towards the baby, and more pleasure playing together. As for Carmona and her two colleagues? They decided¹⁰ not to wait til the study was complete to start their families. "We decided that whatever happens to your brain, we wanted to be mothers."

产生的影响?可能会增加母体依恋。对宝宝的敌意减少，同时与宝宝在一起的乐趣会增多。那么对卡尔莫纳和其他两位同事呢?他们决定尽管研究尚未完成，但是他们要开始组建自己完整的家庭。“无论怀孕对让大脑发生何种变化，我们都渴望成为母亲”。

1 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

2 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

3 deficits   

n.不足额( deficit的名词复数 )；赤字；亏空；亏损

参考例句：

• The Ministry of Finance consistently overestimated its budget deficits. 财政部一贯高估预算赤字。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Many of the world's farmers are also incurring economic deficits. 世界上许多农民还在遭受经济上的亏损。 来自辞典例句

4 optimal   

adj.最适宜的；最理想的；最令人满意的

参考例句：

• What is the optimal mix of private and public property rights in natural resources?私人和国家的自然资源产权的最适宜的组合是什么？
• Optimal path planning is a key link for the sailing contest.帆船最优行驶路径规划是帆船比赛取胜的关键环节。

5 hormonal   

adj.激素的

参考例句：

• Some viral diseases are more severe during pregnancy, probably tecause of hormonal changes. 有些病毒病在妊娠期间比较严重，可能是由于激素变化引起的。
• She underwent surgical intervention and a subsequent short period of hormonal therapy. 他接受外科手术及随后短暂荷尔蒙治疗。

6 fluxes   

连续的改变( flux的名词复数 )； 不稳定的状态； 不停的变化； 通量

参考例句：

• In general, fluxes and forces may have different tensorial characters. 一般说来，力和通量可以具有不同的张量特征标。
• The parameterized eddy fluxes simulatedthe seasonal and latitudinal variations reasonably well. 模拟出涡动通量的空间分布和时间变化。

7 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

8 maternal   

adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的

参考例句：

• He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
• The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。

9 attachment   

n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附

参考例句：

• She has a great attachment to her sister.她十分依恋她的姐姐。
• She's on attachment to the Ministry of Defense.她现在隶属于国防部。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。