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From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康与生活方式报道。
When a brain scientist at the University of California, Irvine got pregnant at the age of 38, she saw a rare chance.
加州大学欧文分校的一位38岁的脑科学家怀孕时，她看到了一个难得的机会。
Neuroscientist Liz Chrastil wanted to see how her brain changed while she was pregnant.
神经科学家利兹·克拉斯蒂尔想看看她的大脑在孕期是如何变化的。
Chrastil was among a group of researchers who presented their findings in a new study.
克拉斯蒂尔是在一项新研究中展示发现成果的一组研究人员之一。
It offers the first detailed map of one woman’s brain through the steps of pregnancy, also called gestation.
它提供了首张一名女性在怀孕（也称为妊娠）过程中大脑的详细地图。
Researchers say that motherhood affects nearly every part of the brain.
研究人员表示，怀孕几乎会影响大脑的每一个部分。
The researchers studied the effects of pregnancy in only one person: Chrastil.
研究人员仅对一个人，即克拉斯蒂尔，的怀孕影响进行了研究。
But their study has started a large international research project that aims to scan the brains of hundreds of women.
但是他们的研究启动了一个大型国际研究项目，其目的是扫描数百名女性的大脑。
The study could one day provide information about disorders like postpartum depression.
这项研究有朝一日可能会提供有关产后抑郁症等疾病的信息。
Postpartum means after birth has taken place. Chrastil said it has been a very long process.
产后意味着分娩已经发生。克拉斯蒂尔说这是一个非常漫长的过程。
“We did 26 scans before, during and after pregnancy…” She said some of the findings were very noteworthy, or in her words “remarkable.”
“我们在怀孕前、怀孕期间和怀孕后进行了26次扫描……”她说，其中一些发现非常值得关注，或者用她的话说“非常显著”。
Chrastil is co-writer of the study that researchers published in Nature Neuroscience in September.
研究人员于9月在《自然神经科学》上发表了该研究，克拉斯蒂尔是这项研究的合著者。
More than 80 percent of the parts of the brain studied had reductions in the amount of gray matter, where thinking takes place.
在大脑被研究的部分中，超过80%的灰质数量有所减少，而灰质是进行思考的地方。
This is an average of about four percent of the brain. This amount is nearly the same as the amount of reduction that happens during puberty.
它平均约占大脑的4%。这几乎与青春期阶段的减少量相同。
Puberty is the biological changes that cause a person to become a fertile adult.
青春期是一种生物变化，它会让人变成有生育能力的成年人。
However, the researchers said the reduction is probably not a bad thing.
不过，研究人员表示，这种减少可能并非坏事。
It might mean that networks of interconnected nerve cells called “neural circuits” are preparing for a new time in a woman's life.
这可能意味着，相互连接的被称为“神经回路”的神经细胞网络正在为女性生命中的新阶段做准备。
The team began following Chrastil shortly before she became pregnant through in vitro fertilization.
在克拉斯蒂尔通过体外受精怀孕前不久，该团队开始追踪她。
During the pregnancy and for two years after she gave birth, they continued doing MRI brain scans and blood tests to see how her brain changed.
在怀孕期间以及分娩后的两年里，他们继续对她进行大脑核磁扫描和血液测试，观察她的大脑有什么变化。
During this time, Chrastil’s sex hormones, like estrogen, increased and decreased.
在这段时间里，克拉斯蒂尔的性激素，如雌激素，有增加，也有减少。
Some of the changes continued past pregnancy.
其中一些变化持续到了分娩后。
Emily Jacobs is with the University of California, Santa Barbara and was also a co-writer of the study.
艾米丽·雅各布斯就职于加利福尼亚大学圣巴巴拉分校，也是这项研究的合著者。
Jacobs said earlier studies had taken scans of the brain before and after pregnancy.
雅各布斯说，早期的研究已经对怀孕前后的大脑进行了扫描。
But she said, none had shown changes in the brain as they were taking place.
但她说，大脑发生变化时并没有通过扫描结果体现出来。
Unlike past studies, this one centered on many inner areas of the brain as well as the cerebral cortex, the outermost area, said Joseph Lonstein.
约瑟夫·朗斯汀说，与过去的研究不同，这项研究集中在大脑的许多内部区域以及大脑皮层，即最外层区域。
He is a professor of neuroscience and psychology at Michigan State University and was not involved in the research.
他是密歇根州立大学的神经科学和心理学教授，并未参与这项研究。
Lonstein said it is “a good first step to understanding much more about whole-brain changes that could be possible in a woman across pregnancy and postpartum.”
朗斯汀说，这是“很好的开端，可以理解女性在怀孕和产后可能发生的全脑变化。”
Research in animals has linked some brain changes with qualities that could help the animal care for an infant.
对动物的研究表明，某些大脑变化与帮助动物照顾幼崽的特质有关。
The new study does not deal with what the changes mean in terms of human behavior.
这项新研究并未谈及这些变化在人类行为方面意味着什么。
However, Lonstein said that it does describe changes in brain areas involved in social cognition, or thinking.
然而，朗斯汀说，它确实描述了涉及社会认知或思维的大脑区域的变化。
This is how people act with others -- for example, how they understand their thoughts and feelings.
这些区域负责的是人们与他人相处的方式——例如，他们如何理解他人的想法和感受。
The researchers have partners in Spain, and they are developing what they call the Maternal Brain Project.
研究人员在西班牙有合作伙伴，他们正在开发他们所谓的“孕产妇大脑项目”。
The Ann S. Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative support the project.
安·S·鲍尔斯女性大脑健康倡议和陈·扎克伯格倡议支持该项目。
The researchers say they hope scientists can use findings from more than one woman to predict problems such as postpartum depression.
研究人员表示，他们希望科学家能够利用不止一名女性的研究结果来预测产后抑郁症等问题。
“There is so much about the neurobiology of pregnancy that we don’t understand yet,…” Jacobs said.
“在与怀孕有关的神经生物学方面，我们还有很多东西不了解，”雅各布斯说。
She added that this is not because women and pregnancy are too complex.
她补充道，这并不是因为女性和怀孕太复杂。
More is not known about pregnancy and the brain, she said, because “biomedical sciences have historically ignored women’s health.”
关于怀孕和大脑，人们所知甚少，她说，是因为“生物医学科学在历史上一直忽视了女性健康。”
And that’s the Health & Lifestyle report, I’m Anna Matteo.
以上就是健康与生活方式报道，我是安娜·马特奥。
