荒诞之说——女性怀孕会变笨 女性怀孕, baby, Baby

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'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.'

    一项全面研究表明，被众人所认可的“怀孕会影响女性智力”的观点是不正确的。
    一些母亲声称患有“婴儿脑”或者“怀孕脑”，症状表现为记忆力减退或者逻辑思维力降低。
    但研究员在跟踪调查了2500名女性，在历时10多时间的调查中发现在他们怀孕前后并没有什么差异。
    事实上，科学家相信，女性怀孕当妈妈以后她们的智力水平反而比之前有所提高-并且这种提高可能是永久性的。  
    早期研究声称，孕期女性的大脑会变小并且在记忆及语言测试当中她们不如其他女性。
    这份差异相当于20岁和60岁年龄段的智力差异。
    但是，来自澳大利亚大学海伦·克里斯坦森教授称，她的研究超越了以前的研究，因为她的研究的是同一怀孕女性孕前及孕期间的变化。
    “我们发现这些怀孕女性在接受第二次或者第三次调查的时候智力与逻辑性表现与之前并没有什么不同，并且她们与其他女性也没有任何差异。”她说。
    “这确实给我们留下一个疑问，为什么女性认为他们记忆力减退而事实又证明她们没有？”
   “或许女性发现记忆力有所减退就把它归咎于怀孕，因为那是当时心目中最重要的事情。”“又或者睡眠不足也削弱了她们的认知能力。”