Oestrogen makes the female brain bigger?

The hippocampus region, a part of the anterior brain, functions to store memories and dominate the mood. Results from a study surprised that elevated estrogen levels in women would make the brain region larger than normal.

Female sex hormones estrogen will increase the most during ovulation. At this time, the female hippocampus (hippocampus) is larger. When the body reduces its estrogen levels, hippocampus will shrink and return to normal size, according to The Independent.

This means that women's hippocampus will change in size once a month, scientists at the Max Planck Institute (Germany) said.

Women's brains may be larger during ovulation.

Previously, some studies showed that the hippocampus area could be resized to respond to environmental conditions. The most typical example is the case of taxi drivers in London, England.

Their Hippocampus was unusually large due to the need to memorize a lot of London's tourist attractions, landmarks and busy road systems. However, research by experts at Max Planck Institute is the first scientific work to detect hippocampus that can grow due to the response to hormone levels and occur once a month.

"We found that high levels of estrogen both caused ovulation and hippocampus to increase size, including gray matter and white matter , " explained Claudia Barth, a neuroscience specialist at the Max Planck Institute. .

These findings were found when scientists conducted a research program on premenstrual psychosis. 1 in 12 women has it. It can cause a variety of symptoms like fatigue, depression and extreme emotional changes.

The lead researcher, Julia Sacher, hopes that the new discovery could help them understand the mechanism of premenstrual psychosis in women, which can then intervene and treat.