Researchers from Australia, Singapore and the US, led by Helena JV Rutherford from Yale University, analysed MRI data from UK Biobank participants: 19,964 women and 17,607 men (average age 55). It turned out that the number of children in the participants was positively associated with the functional connectivity of brain structures, especially in the somatosensory and motor areas of the cortex. The results of the study were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The same results were obtained for both women and men, which means that the positive effect is not due to pregnancy and childbirth, but to childcare. In addition, the number of children was inversely correlated with age-related changes in the functional connections of the brain, so scientists believe that parenthood can have a neuroprotective effect.