The study, carried out over a year by scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London, found that pregnant women use the right side of the brain, which is dominant in processing emotion, more than new mothers do when they look at facial expressions.
Researchers examined the neuropsychological activity of 19 pregnant women within their final trimester and 20 new mothers within 20 weeks of giving birth using the chimeric faces test. The test involved showing the women images made of one half of a neutral face combined with one half of an emotive face to see which side of the brain was dominant in processing emotions.
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