Dad Brain
For Father’s Day I’m reflecting on some of my research on the neuroscience of the Dad Brain.
We often hear about “Mom Brain” and how the hormonal changes associated with childbirth shapes the brains of mothers. There’s a lot of wonderful research to discuss there (and I will in another blog!). There is more to “mom brain” than hormones… and parents who haven’t experienced childbirth do experience changes in their brains. And that leads us to “Dad Brain”… the neurological changes that men go through when they become fathers.
What are some of the changes that occur in a dad brain?
Less afraid of babies. Babies are noisy, smell weird, and are an unpleasant, aversive stimulus for non-parents of many species. It’s kind of hilarious to watch non-parent rats and mice react to babies. They’re sort of like “Oh geez. What the heck is that? I’m outta here!” Some animals will even attack and eat babies that are not their own. So the first change in the brain is to inhibit or suppress the fear response… allowing the parent to tolerate the babies without attacking or running away.
Enjoy the babies. The next brain change will be actually activating reward pathways as positive experiences with the baby begin to increase. For example, when a parent does something like cuddle the baby and it stops screaming and crying, the parent gets multiple positive inputs:
Yay! I feel good about this baby no longer crying! It’s quieter and the baby is actually kind of cute! (activates reward pathways including brain regions like the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area, which release neurochemicals like dopamine).
Cuddling and touch increase social bonding hormones such as oxytocin and vasopressin, increasing positive social connection with this baby/person.
I have learned a new skill, how to soothe a baby, which makes me feel accomplished and able to do more things. (this activates positive feedback systems in learning and memory regions, and begins to lead to the next big changes in the brain).
Take care of babies. People complain about “mom brain” because they feel scattered, distracted, and a bit frantic. But what happens to a parental brain is that they actually reshape to get better at multi-tasking, so that they can take care of many things at one time. They can now take care of one or more babies, plus themselves all at one time. That does come at the cost of focused attention, though. Parents will find that they lose some ability or ease at being focused, which can lead to feeling uncomfortable- mainly because it isn’t how they used to think. They’ll find it a challenge to do the same tasks that they used to do in the same way, and may have to approach old tasks in new ways. It can be a bit of a transition.
Provide for family. Taking care of babies, self, family, house, etc. requires a lot of different tasks, and they can’t all happen at the same time. When a person (or rat!) is single and only has to look out for themselves, they can pretty much just live in a reactive state- “I feel thirsty, gonna find some water now.” But when you have a brood to watch after, you’ve got to plan ahead- “I’m going to be thirsty later when I’m stuck somewhere so I’d better bring water with me.” Parents develop this skill, called prospective memory, to an advanced degree. They’re planning multiple meals ahead, packing sports bags for the next day, remembering the location of items that may need to be used in the future. This ability develops from some intricate wiring in the brain and is exceptionally cool.
The parental brain is shaped not only by hormones, but also by experience with offspring. The hormonal changes during pregnancy seem to shape the maternal brain to do many of these things immediately upon arrival of the baby (or babies). But parents who don’t experience pregnancy -partners, dads, adoptive parents, teachers, and others who spend significant time with children- also experience these neurological changes. Our research on a variety of animal species indicates that it is a combination of factors, including biology, genetics, and especially the time spent with the kids that cause these shifts.
I talked about lots of these points and more on CBS6 Virginia This Morning a few years ago for Father’s Day. Watch the interview at https://www.wtvr.com/2019/06/12/whats-dad-brain
Book Recommendation!
Want to learn more? Some of the parental research I worked on (with the amazing Dr. Kelly Lambert) was featured in Paul Raeburn’s 2014 book: Do Fathers Matter? What Science is Telling Us About the Parent We’ve Overlooked; Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux; New York. (available on Amazon)
I love talking about the neuroscience of everyday life, like how parenting reshapes our brains. Book me for your next event!
