Susanna Carmona Cañabate is one of Spain´s top neuroscientist, specializing on the maternal brain. A few years ago she co-authored the pioner work “Pregnancy leads to long lasting changes in human brain structure“. Ever since we met we have enjoyed discussing many questions regarding the maternal brain, and she wrote two chapters of our book Psychology of Pregnancy.
Last Friday I attended the PhD Thesis defense of «Characterization of gestational brain remodelling in human mothers» written by Magdalena Martínez García and directed by Susanna Carmona which includes three high impact publications:
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Carmona S, Martínez-García M, Paternina-Die M, et al. Pregnancy and adolescence entail similar neuroanatomical adaptations: A comparative analysis of cerebral morphometric changes. Hum Brain Mapp. 2019;40(7):2143-2152. doi:10.1002/hbm.24513
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Martínez-García M, Paternina-Die M, Cardenas SI, et al. First-time fathers show longitudinal gray matter cortical volume reductions: evidence from two international samples [published online ahead of print, 2022 Sep 4]. Cereb Cortex. 2022;bhac333. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhac333
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Martínez-García M, Paternina-Die M, Barba-Müller E, et al. Do Pregnancy-Induced Brain Changes Reverse? The Brain of a Mother Six Years after Parturition. Brain Sci. 2021;11(2):168. Published 2021 Jan 28. doi:10.3390/brainsci11020168
It was brilliant. Susanna and Magdalena are bringing light in the field and their demonstration of matrescence as a neuroanatomical process during pregnancy shall force changes in the way society takes care of pregnant women.
