How does the brain react to the types of anti -Babil? A researcher scored herself 75 times to find out
How does the brain react to the types of anti -Babil? A researcher scored herself 75 times to find out
chicago, illinois
End of morning coffee and meditation: For about 75 days over the course of a year, the morning ritual of the neuroscientist Carina Heller included immersing immersion in the brain scanner of her university at 7:30 a.m. and the perfect breastfeeding for an hour and a half. According to her estimate, she is the most scanned woman in science.
But it wasn't the title she was striving for. Heller's goal was to catalog how your brain during your menstrual cycle both with and without oral contraceptive changed. Their findings indicate that the brain structure and connections change daily in the natural cycle and are influenced by antibabilizers, according to the preliminary results that were presented at this year's annual conference of the Society for Neuroscience.
Heller belongs to a group of researchers in women's health who are tired of doing poor data in a Under research Area themselves by clinging into a brain illustration. More data could give women and their doctors more freedom of choice to "make better informed decisions, whether they want to take the medication or not", and what specific wording is best suited, so Heller, which works at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
"She has undergone a rigorous self -experimentation and gave up science," says Emily Jacobs, neuroscientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who works with Heller. "And as a result we now have a better understanding of the human brain."
research gaps
oral contraceptives often contain synthetic variants of one or two hormones that the body naturally produces: progesterone and estrogen. These hormones prevent pregnancy in different ways, including preventing the ovaries from releasing an egg.
The US regulatory authorities approved the first oral contraception in 1960. Within two years, more than a million people took “the pill” as it became known. Today, more than 150 million people of childbearing age take oral contraceptives, which makes it the most used drugs in the world. Many occupy the pill for reasons that do not related to conception, such as to combat acne, to regulate the menstrual cycle or to relieve menstrual symptoms and migraine.
decades of data about these medication indicate that they are generally safe, but their effects on the brain have not been adequately examined. For example, some people report that they experience reduced depression and anxiety, while others find that these symptoms worsen - and it remains unclear why this is so.
Many people start taking the pill during puberty, a crucial time for maturation of the brain. It is therefore important to understand how it affects the neurocognitive development, says Kathryn Lenz, behavioral neuroscientist at Ohio State University in Columbus.
The adaptable brain
Most neuroimaging experiments use the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of 10 to 30 participants only once or twice, which is expensive. However, this approach does not take into account the daily variations in the brain structure and connections.
A growing number of neuroimaging studies uses a technology called " Density Sampling ", in which researchers repeatedly scan one or a few participants to create a high-resolution data set. Dense sampling records observations that could otherwise be overlooked, but the small sample size leads to a limited generalization of the results on larger populations.
Nevertheless, researchers could find out what drives the different side effects by comparing data records between participants - especially those who have different reactions to the pill.
With this approach, Heller scanned 25 times over a period of 5 weeks and recorded images in different phases of their natural menstrual cycle. A few months later she started taking oral contraceptives and then waited 3 months before scanning another 25 times in 5 weeks. At that time, Heller stopped taking the pill, waited another 3 months and scanned 25 times over 5 weeks for the last time. In addition, she had blood removed and carried out a survey of her mood after each scan.
Heller found a rhythmic pattern of changes in the brain volume and the connectivity between the brain regions in the course of their menstrual cycle, whereby the volume and connectivity easily declined while taking oral contraceptives. (A higher brain volume or higher connectivity does not necessarily mean improved brain function and vice
This pattern largely returned to its previous state after it had discontinued the medication, which shows that the brain is "very adaptable", says Laura Pritschet, who has carried out her graduate work with Jacobs and is now cognitive neuroscientists at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
a growing network
Heller was inspired by a study that her own brain scans for 30 days during her natural menstrual cycle and for another 30 days while taking oral contraceptives. This was part of a project that Pritschet calls 28andme: The name is an allusion to the consumer genetic company 23Andme in Southern California and the 28 days in a classic menstrual cycle.
Data from Pritscht's project showed that higher estrogen levels encourage certain important brain networks to be more likely to be connected to each other 1 . One of them was the "Default Mode Network", which is active during the daydream and is involved in memory processes. Progesterone had the opposite effect. Pritschet also scanned her husband over 30 consecutive days in a spin-off project called 28andhe to understand the effects of hormone fluctuations in the male brain 2 .
Next, Heller plans to compare her data with that of a woman with endometriosis, a painful illness that affects up to 10 % of women of childbearing age to understand whether hormone fluctuations in the brain could drive this condition.
These data records will "give us a really fascinating insight into the relationship between hormonal status and subtle changes in the brain structure and the behavioral functions," says Lenz.
-
Pritschet, L. et al. Neuroimage 220, 117091 (2020).