Mummy brain may just be a cultural phenomenon 妈咪脑可能只是一种文化现象

Mummy-brain-may-just-be-a-cultural-phenomenon-妈咪脑可能只是一种文化现象

“Mommy brain” may be a long-held perception that mothers are more forgetful and fewer attentive.
“妈咪脑”是一种根深蒂固的看法,即女性当了妈妈后更健忘,注意力更差。

Valerie Tucker Miller, a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at Purdue University in the United States, said: “However, in most studies, the subjects of attention and memory tests are women who are in the very early stage of postpartum.” She is studying Become a mother’s influence on attention, memory and other psychological activities.

美国珀杜大学人类学系博士生瓦莱丽·塔克·米勒称:“然而,在大多数研究中,注意力和记忆力测试的对象是那些处于产后极早阶段的女性。”她正在研究成为母亲对注意力、记忆和其他心理活动的影响。

She also said: “It’s no problem. When you first have children, you will encounter a series of hormone and sleep deficiency problems, which may affect the attention and memory processes in the brain.”

她还说:“这没什么问题。当你刚有孩子时,会遇到一连串的激素和睡眠缺乏问题,这可能会影响大脑中的注意力和记忆过程。”

In a new study testing the prevalence of “mommy brain,” Miller used a Revised Version of the eye Network Test (ANT), called the ANT-R, to match reaction times among 60 mothers, all of whom were a minimum of one year postpartum, and 70 non-mothers. The results, published online within the journal Current Psychology, show that mothers performed equally also or better compared with women who had never been pregnant or had children.

在一项测试“妈咪脑”普遍程度的新研究中,米勒使用了改进后的注意力网络测试(ANT)—— ANT-R,对60名母亲(均处于产后一年以上)和70名非母亲的反应时间进行比较。发表在网络版美国《当代心理学》的研究结果显示,与从未怀孕或从未生育的女性相比,妈妈们表现得同样出色甚至更好。

She said: “In this particular study, we recruited mothers more than a year after giving birth because we wanted to see the long-term effects of motherhood. In general, mothers and non-mothers’ attention is not much different, so We found no evidence to support people’s so-called’mummy brain’. If anything, being a mother may be related to increased attention rather than diminished attention.”

她说:“在这项特别研究中,我们招募了产后一年以上的妈妈,因为我们希望看到为人母的长期影响。总的来说,母亲与非母亲的注意力没有太大差别,因此我们发现没有证据支持人们所谓的‘妈咪脑’。如果说有的话,那么为人母可能与注意力的增强而不是减弱有关。”

Co-author Amanda Veile, an professor of anthropology at Purdue, said the mixed-method study could also be the primary to research the long-term effects of biological motherhood on real-life attention network functioning. Lisa A. VanWormer, a Purdue University alumna and visiting professor of psychology at St. Norbert College, is also a co-author.

研究报告的共同作者、珀杜大学人类学助理教授阿曼达·维尔说,这项研究采用混合方法,可能是首次探究生物学上的母性身份对现实生活中的注意力系统机能的长期影响。

Researchers used a seven-point scale to live participants’ responses to survey questions like , “How sleepy does one feel?” and “How does one think your attentiveness is?” Women’s perceived attention functioning was strongly related to their tested attention scores, no matter motherhood status, Veile said.

研究人员用7分制来为研究对象的回答打分,调查问题包括“你感觉有多困”以及“你认为你的注意力怎样”等。维尔说,无论是否已为人母,女性自认的注意力机能都与她们的注意力测试分数强烈相关。

She said: “This means that women have an accurate understanding of their cognitive state, and they should pay attention to their concerns about what they think of the attention function. We also believe that’mummy brain’ may be a cultural phenomenon when Mothers feel the most upset and forgetful when they feel stressed, overburdened and unsupported. Unfortunately, many American mothers feel this way, especially in the current economic and political instability and epidemics period.”

她说:“这意味着女性对自己的认知状态有准确的认识,应该重视她们对自己所认为的注意力机能的担忧。我们还认为,‘妈咪脑’可能是一种文化现象,当母亲感到压力大、负担过重和得不到支持时,会感到最心烦意乱和最健忘。遗憾的是,美国许多妈妈正是这种感觉,尤其是在当前的经济和政治不稳定以及疫情期间。”