Pregnancy is a brain changer that prepares a mouse for parenting

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/10/10/ [login to see] /pregnancy-hormones-change-brain-preparing-mice-for-mothering
There's new evidence that pregnancy really does change the brain.

A study of female mice found that two hormones produced during pregnancy alter brain circuits that control parenting behaviors, a team reports in the journal Science.

The changes make an animal's brain more responsive to the odors and sounds from mouse babies, and appear to remodel "parenting circuits" in the brain to work more efficiently, says Jonny Kohl, a group leader at The Francis Crick Institute in London.

"The relevance of the pup is more obvious to the animal" after these changes, Kohl says.

The same pregnancy hormones also probably change the brains of other mammals, including people, scientists say.