Have you found it hard to finish sentences since falling pregnant? Left keys in the door? Phone on the car roof? I know I have! There's so much negative press around the brain changes that happen in women and birthing people (deeply rooted in sexism and misogynism!), but the work that Dr. Bridget Callaghan and her colleagues are doing is showing that we're not getting stupider - we're actually seriously up-levelling. If you're worried about the fuzzy  brain, this one's for you. 

Dr. Bridget Callaghan is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she directs The Brain & Body Lab. Together with her students, she studies interactions between mental and physical health across development, and how early life experiences of adversity influence development. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, her Masters in Clinical Psychology, and her Ph.D. at the University of New South Wales, in Australia. She has worked clinically in the field of developmental psychology, and completed her postdoctoral training at Columbia University in New York in 2019. Dr. Callaghan’s research has been generously funded through the National Institutes of Mental Health, Brain Behavior Research Foundation, and National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

Lab webpage: https://brainandbodylab.psych.ucla.edu/

Twitter: @Dr_BCallaghan

Lab Instagram: @bablab_UCLA

Online study for first time pregnant mums going on now: https://research.sc/participant/login/dynamic/63060D73-0478-4EB1-AAE7-BEC43C066940