So, let's share some science. 🤓 This is my latest preprint, first-authored by Natalia Chechko. We tracked temporal trajectories of resting brain-function in healthy mothers from 1 week to 6 months after childbirth. doi.org/10.1101/2023... #Neuroscience #MedSky #PsychSciSky #Neuroimaging 🧵1/n - ThreadSky

leondlotter.de • 526 days ago

So, let's share some science. 🤓
This is my latest preprint, first-authored by Natalia Chechko.

We tracked temporal trajectories of resting brain-function in healthy mothers from 1 week to 6 months after childbirth.
https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.08.15.553345

#Neuroscience #MedSky #PsychSciSky #Neuroimaging

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leondlotter.de•526 days ago

We collected data from 75 mothers in their first week postpartum (pp). 19 were followed in 5 additional sessions during the next 6 months.

We aimed to look at potential mechanisms underlying postpartum brain-functional adaptations using the imaging and hormonal data available.

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leondlotter.de•526 days ago

We expected strong differences between mother’s brains at pp week 1 vs. nulliparous controls.

We found decreases of global (GCOR) and local (LCOR) connectivity in bilateral putamen and insula, respectively. Increases of local activity (fALFF) were more distributed, and only cortical.

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leondlotter.de•526 days ago

We found striking dissociations between temporal trajectories of cluster-averaged data:

Increased cortical local activity (fALFF) remained persistent across the 6 follow-up months. Visually less clear, but statistically so, did decreased insular local connectivity (LCOR).

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leondlotter.de•526 days ago

On the other hand, decreased *subcortical* *whole-brain* connectivity showed clear linear and quadratic normalization trajectories, reaching control-levels at about 6-9 weeks pp.

What may cause this dissociation, coinciding with the so-called "subacute postpartum period"?

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leondlotter.de•526 days ago

While we cannot claim causality, we found subcortical effects related to pp progesterone levels.

(1) whole-brain distributions of MRI changes colocalized with corticosteroid hormone receptors and related transmitters.
(2) subcortical MRI trajectories & progesterone levels covaried over time.

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leondlotter.de•526 days ago

Last, there was some (very limited) indication of relationships between maternal behavior and persistant MRI alterations. Stuff for future work!
(Last picture: both hormone and behav. associations)

Thanks go to our collaborators, especially Natalia Chechko and my supervisor Jeurgen Dukart! 🎉

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