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Study: Can Taking Birth Control Pills Change The Shape Of Your Brain?

LOS ANGELES, Ca. (CBS) – A new study suggests that taking oral contraceptive pills may affect an individual's brain structure and function.

The study, which was published in the journal of Human Brain Mapping, used 90 women participants, 44 using the pill and 46 non-users.

Researchers say they took MRI scans of the females and they "compared the cortical thickness of brain regions that participate in the salience network and the default mode network, as well as the volume of subcortical regions in these networks."

The study found that oral contraceptive use was linked with significantly lower cortical thickness in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex.

Researchers say these are the regions thought to be essential for evaluating internal states, reward response and incoming stimuli.

Further studies are still needed to determine if cortical thinning in these brain regions are also associated with behavioral changes, according to researchers.

Furthermore, they say determining whether pill use is causally or only indirectly related to these changes in brain morphology requires further investigations.

To read the full study, click here.

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