Unprecedented observations of the human brain leaving the womb and entering the outside world have revealed an explosive growth spurt.
Brain scans suggest that within the first few months of a newborn’s life, a sudden influx of sensory information triggers the formation of billions of new neural connections that did not exist in the womb. I am.
Previous studies have analyzed the fetus and newborn Although conducted separately, the new study looked at the brains of 140 people on both sides of the birth transition. The dataset includes 126 prenatal scans starting approximately 6 months after conception and 58 postnatal scans starting approximately 3 months after birth.
“This unique longitudinal dataset gives us, for the first time, an opportunity to investigate changes in the brain throughout birth,” New York University (NYU) neuroscientist Lanxin Ji told ScienceAlert. spoke.
“Surprisingly, there remain significant gaps in our understanding of how the human brain changes during this critical developmental stage.”
Lead researcher Moriah Tomasson of New York University is a world leader in fetal MRI research and has spent years scanning the brains of mothers and their children. Fetal MRI studies are prone to distortion and signal loss, and because researchers measure blood oxygen levels in the brain, they may not fully capture all the transmitting neurons present.
That said, this is the first large-scale study to examine how people rest. functional MRMy activities may change during the birth transition period.
“Our findings suggest that birth is not simply a continuation of prenatal brain growth, but a distinct transformational stage that influences future cognitive and behavioral outcomes,” Professor Ji said. explained.
In the first few weeks after birth, the model shows a surge in neural connections, suggesting the brain is scrambling to process and integrate new types of information.
However, not all regions are affected equally. After leaving the womb, some brain networks become particularly complex and blossom, forming many new neural connections.
That is especially true primitive subcortical areapart of the central hub involved in basic life functions such as motor control, breathing, blinking, flinching, and digestion.
Parts of the frontal lobe also show a dramatic growth spurt after birth. nerve bridge Like the bilateral sensorimotor areas, they connect areas on both sides of the brain and integrate sensory information to inform motor control.
The new findings support the hypothesis that in the womb, the human brain is equipped with a rudimentary neural network that is busy tackling “local” problems. But once born, these local things become “global” and communicate with networks farther away than ever before.
After this initial growth spurt, the newborn brain gradually undergoes reorganization, pruning inefficient pathways between networks and strengthening others. The result is a major change in the way your brain is wired.
Childbirth is one of the most important events in human life, and as advances in neuroimaging continue, scientists are getting closer to watching that moment unfold in our most vital organs.
“This study lays the foundation for future studies on the maturation timing of brain functional networks over the perinatal period,” Ji told ScienceAlert.
“Extending from this study, we can imagine further studies examining how factors such as gender, prematurity, and prenatal adversity interact with the timing and growth patterns of brain network development in children. ”
This research PLOS Biology.
