LONDON, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) — Scientists in Australia and other countries have found that pregnancy does not make women dumber, but also makes them smarter and improves their lifelong cognitive abilities. The British newspaper The Observer quoted the Australian National University’s Helen Christensen as saying on Feb. 8. The Observer newspaper quoted Professor Helen Christensen of the Australian National University as saying: “Women often complain about their memory and reasoning abilities declining after pregnancy. But our latest findings, after 10 years of research and the most in-depth exploration of the matter, prove that this is not the case.” Christensen is the director of the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University and led the study. She interviewed 2,500 women between the ages of 20 and 24 in 1999, 2004 and 2008, and found that “women who became pregnant during the second and third interviews had the same results on logic and memory tests as before, with no difference between pregnant women and controls (test results). Christensen also referred to a follow-up study conducted by scientists at the National University of Singapore. The Singapore scientists reported finding that in the rat experiments, the female rats had newly grown gyri in their brains that developed from fetal cells. “One can therefore hypothesize that women may have higher levels of intelligence when they are pregnant than they did originally, and that it may be permanently elevated.” Craig Kinsley, a professor of neurology at the University of Richmond, said. Kingsley’s findings last year echoed Christensen’s findings. He said, “Pregnancy allows women to think more quickly throughout their lives and protects the brain from neurodegenerative diseases in old age. As to why many pregnant women mistakenly believe that their brain function is diminished, Christensen said the reason may be that pregnancy “as the most important thing on their mind at the time, easily become an excuse for subtle deviations in intelligence levels during pregnancy,” and “lack of sleep may allow them to ignore their cognitive ability to improve “. Kingsley believes the reason may be that “parts of the brain are reorganized to prepare for the challenges of parenting in the future.