Motherhood can supercharge the female brain, giving lifelong improvements in mental skills and giving protection against the degenerative diseases of old age, reports Dr. Kinsley in a new study to be at the Society of Neuroscience. The researchers said: “Pregnant women do undergo a phase of so-called baby brain, when they experience an apparent loss of function,” said Craig Kinsley, professor of neuroscience at the University of Richmond, Virginia. However, this is because their brains are being remodeled for motherhood to cope with the many new demands they will experience. ”The changes that kick in then could last for the rest of their lives, bolstering cognitive abilities and protecting them against degenerative diseases.”

A new study out this week in PNAS may help us understand how aging affects the female brain differently than the male brain, especially in the 60-70 year olds. Here’s the bottom line: 60-70 year old males tend to have more gene changes in their brains and my become affected by brain aging sooner than females. They also found that aging of the male brain was characterized by global decreased catabolic and anabolic capacity, while increased immune activation was a prominent feature of aging in both sexes. Females tend to respond with greater inflammatory activation in the female brain.

Girls are less likely to get diagnosed with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder–often until college or adulthood they suffer in silence. A new study out this week finds that girls with attention deficit disorder, ADD, many of whom often turn to using street drugs–DO NOT turn to street drugs as often when they get treatment for their ADD. The researchers found that the impact of ADD on the risk of substance abuse in the 114 girls they studied who had enrolled at the ages of 6 to 18 were significantly less likely to start using street drugs. The full article appears in the October Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.