Dads’ Brains Change After Having Children

Everybody knows that mothers’ brains are changed with pregnancy and childbirth. They are given a massive dose of hormones.

We also know that fathers’ lives are profoundly different after having children, but did you know that their brain structure is also changed?

It’s a magical process that involves brain structure of the fathers changing simply from being in the presence of their child, being able to smell them and touch them, and generally interacting with them.

It has been found when studying mice that if the fathers spend time in the nest with the babies that new brain cells grow. If the father left the nest their brains stayed the same. As well, the hormone responsible for lactating in mothers works in fathers to help build the connection with his babies.

They also think that the brain of the baby expects this bond with the father to happen. This means that when the father is removed the brain development of the baby will break down in the areas that control decision-making, reward, and emotion.

These animal studies show that a father’s brain is significantly and beautifully intertwined with his offspring’s. For whatever reasons, be they biological, evolutional, or societal, the onus of human parenthood has traditionally fallen on the mother. But the evidence is showing that a father has direct influence on his child’s neurodevelopment – and indeed, his brain can benefit as well.

Usually the research focuses on the brains of babies, but this is interesting because it focuses on the brains of fathers.

I wonder what the difference would be to the father’s life if he is removed from the baby and his brain cells are not allowed to grow. Will he also have emotional and social problems?

I think there would certainly be an impact because knowing you have a young child that you can’t access would be devastating for many fathers. But if you never knew you had it in the first place it wouldn’t be an issue.

Unlike mothers, fathers only develop this bond after the child is born, so this is all the more reason to promote shared child care.

Like the author of this article said, the “father’s brain is significantly and beautifully intertwined with his offspring’s” and it’s wonderful to think that all fathers have a small part of their brain solely dedicated to their children.