News from the frontiers of medicine:
"Baby Brain" is a myth; that syndrome being the supposed decline in intelligence that women suffer while pregnant. A study led by Dr. Helen Christensen of the Australian National University in Canberra tracked 2500 women over ten years and "found no difference between their brainpower before and during their pregnancies."
Baby Brain reminds me of Josh Whicker's 2004
Hoosier Gazette hoax in which he claimed that a five-year Indiana University study had found that "having children significantly lowers parents’ IQs." If I remember, that fooled a lot of the media, including Keith Olbermann.
Anyway, I still believe there's such a thing as Internet Brain.
Comments
'While a woman may experience an apparent loss of brain function while she is pregnant, this could be because parts of her brain are being remodelled in preparation for dealing with the complicated demands of child-rearing."
I'm now 37 weeks pregnant and I've been unscientifically charting my brain function using the BrainAge video game since before I was pregnant. I'm now 37 week and in the last month my scores have suddenly plummeted.
Glad to know it's not perminant!
When that story ran in Australia about 75 of the 80 comments said "No, it's true, when I was pregnant..." The anecdotal evidence was overwhelming. Dr Helen just didn't use the right test. Many comments were from highly educated women like my wife (PhD). I've been told in no uncertain terms to never repeat her "incidents".
Saying Baby Brain doesn't exist is like saying PMT doesn't exist. Both involve massive hormonal in-balances and I can tell you it's like a Greek Wedding Reception in Habitat every 28 days around here...