United States: Most people accept that learning and other life events cause the brain to modify itself, which is known as neuroplasticity.
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Current research shows that female brains have the most growth and change during the three Ps: puberty, pregnancy, and perimenopause.
Teenagers are moody about not being kids, forgetful and disorganized would-be moms, and hot flash-having middle-aged women are common jokes in pop culture.
It’s common for pop-culture jokes to target these transitions: the clumsy teen bent on parties with friends, the scatterbrained mom who forgets everything and misplaces her car, and the easily distracted woman in menopause who gets heated up with hot flashes.
How female hormones, such as estrogen and progesterone, influence brain structure and function has always fascinated Laura Pritchett, who is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania.
According to Pritchett, who told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta recently on his podcast Chasing Life, “The reason I chose that field is because I was a budding neuroscientist as an undergrad, interested in brain networks and obsessing over how intricate everything was in the brain to simply allow us to have a personality or remember things,” CNN Health reported.
“At the same time in my personal life, I was surrounded by menopausal women who were talking about their cognitive complaints and their attention issues,” she added.
“I thought we’ve got to connect these two together and understand this more,” she continued.