Scientist scans her own brain 75 times to study the effects of birth control pills – CBC

There’s not enough data about women’s brains, so Carina Heller hopped into an MRI machine

Oct 23, 2024

Carina Heller has found a creative way to donate her brain to science — while she’s still using it.

The University of Minnesota neuroscientist wanted to get a better understanding of how birth control pills impact the brain, so she spent 75 sessions in an MRI machine to find out.

“It was actually not that hard, to be honest, because I knew what I was doing it for and I was really excited that we were able to do the study,” Heller told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

Heller is working to make her brain data available to other scientists in the hopes of adding to what she sees as a dearth of research into women’s brains broadly, and the neurological impact of oral contraceptives in particular.

“Although this medication has been around for [decades], this research field is still very small,” she said.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/birth-control-brain-scans-1.7361220

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