The study was published in the Cerebral Cortex.
Science finds first-time fathers suffer brain shrinkage BUT there’s an upside
Dad-brain is real, you guys.
Research has often looked into the ways that motherhood alters the structure of a person’s brain, but what about dads?
Turns out that fatherhood is a brain-shifter too! Men are also impacted, scientifically, by their new role as a parent according to new international research which has identified neurological changes amongst first-time fathers.
The small study, which looked at brain patterns in fathers from Spain and California, some with kids and some without, found new fathers lost around too percent of cortical volume following the birth of their first child.
But it’s not bad news …
Is losing cortical volume worrisome?
Research identified that this ‘brain shrinkage’ was mainly confined to an area of the brain known as the ‘default mode network’, aka DFN. In terms of parenting, the DFN has to do with how we manage parental acceptance and warmth.
The loss of cortical volume may sound like a negative thing but, in fact, it can actually indicate a refinement of the area of the brain that makes a connection with their new baby stronger.
Similar research into the DFN and cortical losses in new mothers has shown that the loss results in an increased parent-child attachment.
“These findings may suggest a unique role of the visual system in helping fathers to recognise their infants and respond accordingly, a hypothesis to be confirmed by future studies,” the authors of the new paper write.
“Understanding how the structural changes associated with fatherhood translate into parenting and child outcomes is a largely unexplored topic, providing exciting avenues for future research.”
(Image: Getty)
First-time dads lose a small fraction of the volume of some brain regions, a new study has revealed.
Dad’s brain is impacted by parenting too
The new research is based on magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI) data from 40 heterosexual first-time fathers and a control group of seventeen childless men.
Half of the expectant fathers were based in in Spain, and they participated in brain scans before their partners’ pregnancies, and then again a few months after birth.
The other expectant fathers were based in the US and participated during the mid-to-late stages of their partners’ pregnancy, and then again seven to eight months postpartum.
In all cases, changes in their limbic subcortical network – the part of the brain associated with pregnancy hormones – showed no change, which makes sense, as did the lack of changes to the subcortex, which is associated with reward and motivation.
In addition to the loss of cortical volume, the new dad’s brains showed signs of brain plasticity in their cortical gray matter, which is largely involved in social understanding.
Parenting really DOES change you for life!
