A team of researchers who scanned a 26-year-old man’s brain 40 times over 30 days discovered that men’s brains shrink at 8 p.m. and return to normal throughout the night.
“70 PERCENT DECREASE IN HORMONES”
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, reported that this apparent growth and shrinkage cycle coincides with rising and falling levels of steroid hormones such as testosterone, cortisol and estradiol. “In men, steroid hormones drop by 70 percent between morning and evening,” said Laura Pritschet, co-author of the study.
According to the research published in The Journal of Neurosciente, it was stated that the overall volume of the brain decreases day by day and the thickness of the cortex, the outermost layer of the brain, also decreases.
“IT DECREASES BY AN AVERAGE OF 0.6 PERCENT EVERY NIGHT”
Researchers discovered that the volume of gray matter, which plays a key role in mental functions, memory, emotions and movement, decreases by an average of 0.6 percent each night. Deeper structures of the brain, such as the cerebellum, brainstem and parts of the hippocampus, also undergo changes throughout the day. These parts of the brain coordinate movements, transfer information between the brain and body and store memories.
On the other hand, it was also stated that the study was conducted on only one person, so it could not be applied to a larger population.