Pregnancy does not Lead to Greater Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task: Performance in Primiparous Women

Pregnancy leads to volumetric reductions in brain regions involved in Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks. These volumetric reductions appear to be an expression of the woman’s brain preparing itself for motherhood and caregiving. Yet, how pregnancy affects ToM abilities is still largely unknown. The present study investigated how pregnancy affects ToM in primiparous women (i.e., woman who is bearing a first offspring) and whether these changes are predictive of maternal sensitivity. ToM abilities, as assessed through total accuracy scores on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task (RMET), were not enhanced at post-pregnancy, compared to pre-pregnancy (H1). Neither did we observe a stronger enhancement in RMET child format performance compared to RMET-adult performance over the course of pregnancy (H2). Moreover, changes in ToM abilities across pregnancy was not a significant predictor of maternal sensitivity at one year postpartum (H3). In conclusion, ToM abilities, as assessed via RMET, did...Show morePregnancy leads to volumetric reductions in brain regions involved in Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks. These volumetric reductions appear to be an expression of the woman’s brain preparing itself for motherhood and caregiving. Yet, how pregnancy affects ToM abilities is still largely unknown. The present study investigated how pregnancy affects ToM in primiparous women (i.e., woman who is bearing a first offspring) and whether these changes are predictive of maternal sensitivity. ToM abilities, as assessed through total accuracy scores on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task (RMET), were not enhanced at post-pregnancy, compared to pre-pregnancy (H1). Neither did we observe a stronger enhancement in RMET child format performance compared to RMET-adult performance over the course of pregnancy (H2). Moreover, changes in ToM abilities across pregnancy was not a significant predictor of maternal sensitivity at one year postpartum (H3). In conclusion, ToM abilities, as assessed via RMET, did not change over de course of pregnancy. We speculated that the incongruence between our hypotheses and results could potentially be attributed to suboptimal operationalization of ToM abilities. For future studies it may be relevant to include ToM measures that focus more directly on the affective aspect of ToM.Show less

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Pregnancy does not Lead to Greater Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task: Performance in Primiparous Women