{"id":94256,"date":"2024-07-03T15:55:52","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T19:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=94256"},"modified":"2024-08-29T16:41:53","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T20:41:53","slug":"crc-spotlight-examining-how-hormones-parenthood-rewire-the-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2024\/07\/crc-spotlight-examining-how-hormones-parenthood-rewire-the-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"CRC Spotlight: Examining how hormones, parenthood rewire the brain"},"content":{"rendered":"

The federal government\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>Canada Research Chairs<\/em><\/a>\u00a0program invests up to $311 million per year to attract and retain some of the world\u2019s most accomplished and promising minds. Chairholders are recognized to be national and international experts in the fields of engineering and the natural sciences, health sciences, humanities and social sciences. Brock University has\u00a0<\/em>12 active Canada Research Chairs<\/em><\/a>. This\u00a0<\/em>monthly series<\/em><\/a>\u00a0profiles the work, and lives, of Brock\u2019s Chairholders.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Paula Duarte-Guterman first introduces herself to a new group of students, she likes to tell them about the two loves of her scientific life.<\/p>\n

The first she met in a high school biology class. The second came a few years later during her time as a graduate student.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love hormones,\u201d says the Brock University Assistant Professor of Psychology. \u201cI was trained as a biologist, and I became interested in how hormones regulate brain function.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I fell in love with behaviour,\u201d she says. \u201cHormones and behaviour are very much interconnected. We know that hormones regulate behaviour, but then behaviour also regulates hormones.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Neuroscience, Duarte-Guterman studies how male and female hormones, parenthood and aging affect the remodelling of brain circuits in the hippocampus, a region of the brain regulating learning, memory, stress and anxiety.<\/p>\n

Neurons \u2014 cells in the brain and nervous system that transmit messages \u2014 enable the body to function. Neurons that link up to carry out specific functions form neural circuits.<\/p>\n

The brain continually reorganizes, changes, destroys and creates neurons to compensate for damage and to respond to learning, changes in the environment and life experiences.<\/p>\n

This process is called neuroplasticity, colloquially referred to as \u201crewiring the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duarte-Guterman is particularly interested in the role parenthood plays in this process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that parenthood is a dramatic transformation in terms of having to adapt to take care of your offspring,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat does the parenthood experience entail for learning and memory and the regulation of stress and anxiety throughout the parent\u2019s lifespan?\u201d<\/p>\n

Preliminary research in the field has uncovered a number of findings Duarte-Guterman aims to explain further.<\/p>\n

For instance, studies from western Europe and North America have shown those having multiple motherhood experiences \u2014 four or more children \u2014 are at greater risk of developing Alzheimer\u2019s disease and certain types of dementia.<\/p>\n

Other studies reveal hormonal changes may be remodelling the brains of fathers and mothers in similar ways, even though fathers themselves have not experienced pregnancy.<\/p>\n

Duarte-Guterman and her team are using animal models to explore how the brain mechanisms of parents impact learning, memory and anxiety-related behaviours over time.<\/p>\n

The parental experience has been a reoccurring theme in Duarte-Guterman\u2019s entire life, starting with her supportive mother and father.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout them, I would still be in Colombia,\u201d she says, recalling how they encouraged their children to pursue post-secondary education outside of the then unsafe and unstable country.<\/p>\n

She earned a Bachelor of Science and a PhD in Biological Sciences at the University of Ottawa before pursuing post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Ulm in Germany, the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University. She joined Brock in 2021.<\/p>\n

Duarte-Guterman\u2019s passion for studying parenthood peaked when she became a mother during her second post-doctoral term.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think I\u2019m the same person who I was before I had my daughter,\u201d she says. \u201cI reflected on my transformation as a mother, especially my behavioural changes, my attitude towards things and how I react to things, and I thought my brain had changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the day she became a Canada Research Chair, Duarte-Guterman broke the news to her family, including her mother, who was visiting from Colombia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI showed my mother the letter from the Canadian Prime Minister; she was very, very proud,\u201d Duarte-Guterman recalls. \u201cGetting a letter from the Prime Minister was something I never expected when I came to Canada at the age of 18. That’s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n