Oxford University Press’s neuroscience issue Cerebral Cortex An international study has been published that examines the changes in the brains of new fathers.
According to the results of the research, it was revealed that men’s brains shrink after their first child is born and fathered.
THE SAME STUDY HAS BEEN DONE FOR WOMEN
In studies conducted on mothers after having children before, it was determined that the neurological structure of their brains changed to a certain extent.
This study investigated first-time fathers and found that, on average, new fathers lose 1 or 2 percent of cortical volume, just like mothers. The ‘downsizing’ is happening in the ‘default mode network’ of the brain, which is related to parenting.
THIS MAKES A STRONG CONNECTION
The loss of cortical volume may sound bad when you first hear it, but this allows parents to form a stronger connection with their children.
For example, similar cortical losses in mothers enable their children to have better neural responses and to form stronger child-parent bonds. Previous studies had shown subtle neurological changes in the male brain following the birth of a child.
For the first time, it was revealed in this study that fathers’ brains ‘shrink’ in a similar way to mothers.