Sunday 1 February 2009
Who am I?...I don't remember!!!
It is Sunday, the 1st of February. I have mentioned the date first, since I am currently wondering how I remembered the date of my mother-in-law's birthday a few weeks ago when I bough her a gift, but not today. While I struggle to concentrate through this online course, and stumble uncontrollably towards my third trimester, can I blame my forgetfulness on my pregnancy 'slush' brain?
I remember a former colleague, an obstetrician with whom I collaborated on angiogenesis (blood vessel) research, making a passing comment about women's brains shriking during pregnancy. So, I decided to follow this up and see if I could use it as an excuse. According to a 1997 study, a woman's brain does shrink by 3 - 5% during pregnancy. When this study was published there was somewhat of a media frenzy, with headings such as Pregnancy makes your brain shrink (The Independent January 9, 1997). But can we believe this study? Whilst the abstract and the full-text of the article seem to be impossible to find in any database, scathing reviews of the article abound on the internet. According to reviews on the BBC Radio 4: The Memory Experience website and the The Daily Telegraph and Bayer Science Writer Awards website, the study only used 10 women, and no causal link between brain shrinkage and memory loss was made.
At this point I feel that I could launch into a lengthy tirade about the problems of the media's interpretation of published scientific findings. For example, on Christmas Eve the BBC threw out Chocolate and wine improve memory (BBC News online, 24 December 2008). Well I scoffed chocolate like there was no tomorrow for about three weeks over the festive season and it didn't seem to help. However, I did miss out the wine. Maybe that's it! When you are pregnant, you can't benefit from the memory bolstering effects of wine! It all makes sense now.
Regardless of my feelings about science and the media, I still need to make amends for forgetting my mother-in-law's birthday. But I am not alone here, her own son didn't remember either. In fact, I have been reminding him for the last seven years, until this year. Again there are so many studies about the differences in memory formation between males and females. Maybe I should just forget about those studies (not that I'll need to try very hard) and just ply him with wine and chocolate at the end of January...
I remember a former colleague, an obstetrician with whom I collaborated on angiogenesis (blood vessel) research, making a passing comment about women's brains shriking during pregnancy. So, I decided to follow this up and see if I could use it as an excuse. According to a 1997 study, a woman's brain does shrink by 3 - 5% during pregnancy. When this study was published there was somewhat of a media frenzy, with headings such as Pregnancy makes your brain shrink (The Independent January 9, 1997). But can we believe this study? Whilst the abstract and the full-text of the article seem to be impossible to find in any database, scathing reviews of the article abound on the internet. According to reviews on the BBC Radio 4: The Memory Experience website and the The Daily Telegraph and Bayer Science Writer Awards website, the study only used 10 women, and no causal link between brain shrinkage and memory loss was made.
At this point I feel that I could launch into a lengthy tirade about the problems of the media's interpretation of published scientific findings. For example, on Christmas Eve the BBC threw out Chocolate and wine improve memory (BBC News online, 24 December 2008). Well I scoffed chocolate like there was no tomorrow for about three weeks over the festive season and it didn't seem to help. However, I did miss out the wine. Maybe that's it! When you are pregnant, you can't benefit from the memory bolstering effects of wine! It all makes sense now.
Regardless of my feelings about science and the media, I still need to make amends for forgetting my mother-in-law's birthday. But I am not alone here, her own son didn't remember either. In fact, I have been reminding him for the last seven years, until this year. Again there are so many studies about the differences in memory formation between males and females. Maybe I should just forget about those studies (not that I'll need to try very hard) and just ply him with wine and chocolate at the end of January...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
