The largest and most comprehensive study of memory and cognition in new parents has found no evidence for "baby brain" in mums and dads. New mums often complain about having "baby brain," where memory and cognition become vague and unreliable. Now a Monash University study—the largest ever done comparing cognitive ability in new mums and dads—has unequivocally found no evidence that "baby brain" reflects underlying problems with cognition that result from becoming a parent.
In a study published in the journal, Cortex, and led by Navyaan Siddiqui and Dr. Kelsey Perrykkad from the Cognitive Neuroimaging Lab at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health in the Monash School of Psychological Sciences, researchers examined cognitive differences in 150 birth-giving mothers and 150 non-birth-giving fathers up to two years after the birth of their baby.
The study, "Baby brain? Evidence for no objective cognitive differences between mothers, fathers and non-parents in the post-partum period,"
found—using a comprehensive battery of cognitive assessments—that both mums and dads showed similar performance to non-parent (male and female) controls on all cognition measures, "suggesting the absence of so-called 'baby brain' effects," Dr. Perrykkad said.
