2011/09/19 by Jessica F. Henry, Barbara B. Sherwin · 172 citations
Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Birth, Development, and Health #Cognition #Developmental psychology #Hormone #Internal medicine #Longitudinal study #Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum #Medicine #Neuropsychology #Postpartum period #Pregnancy #Prolactin #Psychiatry #Psychology #Recall #Stress Responses and Cortisol #Testosterone (patch)
paper · open access · doi:10.1037/a0025540
published in Behavioral Neuroscience 126(1), 73-85 (American Psychological Association)
openalex publication_date 2011/09/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
This longitudinal study investigated the possible influence of estradiol (E₂), progesterone (P), testosterone (T), cortisol (CORT), and prolactin (PRL) levels on cognitive functioning during late pregnancy and the early postpartum period. The performance of 55 pregnant women on a battery of neuropsychological tests, tested once during the third trimester of pregnancy and once during the early postpartum period, was compared with that of 21 nonpregnant controls matched for age and education. Women in the pregnancy group had significantly lower scores than the controls during both the pre- and postpartum visits on tasks of verbal recall and processing speed. CORT levels were significantly associated, in an inverted-U function, with verbal recall scores at both the pregnancy and at postpartum periods and with spatial abilities at postpartum only. During pregnancy, PRL levels were associated in both a linear and an inverted-U function with scores on tests of paragraph recall and in a linear function with scores on tests of executive function. At postpartum, E₂ and CORT were negatively associated in a linear fashion with attention scores. These findings provide new evidence that fluctuating hormone levels during late pregnancy and early postpartum may modulate selected cognitive abilities.