Motherhood ensures moms do know best

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When actress Rachel Weisz forgot to thank her future husband after she won the Academy Award this year, she blamed it on her upcoming motherhood.

"I think it's because I'm pregnant, my brain is a bit like porridge," she said of her onstage lapse.

But science suggests that Miss Weisz's brain -- as with other human mothers -- is actually becoming more focused, more attuned, more resourceful and more complex as she prepares for the mother of all multitasks: raising a child.

"Motherhood can be tremendously strengthening to you as a person," says Katherine Ellison, author of "The Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes Us Smarter."

Mrs. Ellison's book, which is grounded in scientific studies, finds "five attributes of a baby-boosted brain."

Motherhood, she writes, appears to be linked to enhanced perception, with greater sensitivity in smell, vision, hearing and physical contact. "Mom radar," as Mrs. Ellison puts it.

Mothers are also likely to become efficient and resourceful multitaskers who are strongly motivated to set and fulfill goals. Other hallmarks of motherhood are improved social skills and emotional intelligence, which allows them to reduce stress and encourage resilience.

Many of these maternal behaviors are seen in rodent studies, in which mother rats frequently outperform "virgin" female rats.

Rat mothers are focused, efficient, fast and successful in their behaviors because they are "looking out not just for Number 1, but also for Numbers 2, 3, 4, and so forth," Mrs. Ellison surmises.

Still, the question arises: If it's true that motherhood turns most women into some kind of supermom, where did everyone get the idea that childbearing turned women into nitwits?