We know that the woman's brain changes during pregnancy to have a greater bond with the baby once it is born. We also know that once the baby is born, his brain grows and reacts by changing to adapt to the new situation.
What if we talk about the father? Does something happen to parents when we have a child? Obviously, the answer depends a lot on each parent, since in our body there is no physical change, but yes, it has been seen in a recent study that men's brains change when they have children and change more the longer the time you spend taking care of your baby, to the point that it almost works like a mother's brain.
Differences between the brain of the mother and the father
To do the study, researchers from the Gonda Brain Science Center at the University of Bar-Ilan, in Israel, studied 89 first-time parents. First they saw how the brain of 20 heterosexual mothers who were the primary caregivers worked and compared it with 21 heterosexual parents who were the secondary caregivers (which usually happens on most occasions).
They were all made brain scanners while teaching them videos of parents interacting with their children, to see which areas of the brain were activated. They saw that the difference was quite clear, since the moms showed more activity in the amygdala (five times more) and in other emotional processing structures than parents. This means that mothers care more, are more engaged and are more aware of the baby's warning signs, probably as a result of pregnancy, childbirth and having assumed the role of primary caregiver.
The parents, on the other hand, had more activity in the superior temporal groove of the brain, which is a region that is important for socialization, something like the part of the brain that helps us interpret facial expressions, process speech and understand how we interact with others. This goes to say that parenting has more to do with the rational, with empathy, with the understanding of suffering.
Something like, summarizing, to say that mothers care for their children when they cry because they feel they are suffering while parents care for them because they know they are suffering.
What happens when it is the father who takes care of the baby?
Now, those differences that could be said to be structural, that is, born with them, should be confirmed by observing what happened if the baby's primary caregiver was a man.
To analyze this, they studied 48 gay parents who were raising their children as primary caregivers. They saw that in these cases both regions are very active, the rational of heterosexual parents who are secondary caregivers and the emotional of mothers who are primary caregivers. The most curious thing is that the tonsil of these fathers is activated practically at the same level as that of the mothers.
In the words of Ruth Feldman, principal investigator:
They have the parents' cognitive structures, but the amygdala is sensitive to child care experiences ... The more parents are involved in active care, the more the paternal network will activate the maternal network.
That is, it refers to the maternal network as the emotional part of the brain of man that is activated to a greater extent the more time a man spends with his children.
But beware, we are not talking about love
Just in case someone is thinking that we talk about love, the researchers analyzed the levels of oxytocin (the love hormone) and saw that the levels were very similar for mothers and fathers, regardless of whether they were primary and secondary caregivers.
And what does this all mean?
Well, we parents are also able to take care of our children (this we already knew, of course) and that our brain changes to make it possible to the point that a parent, primary caregiver, comes to relate to their child in a more emotional way than the rest of the parents, feeling the same bond and the same concern that a mother may feel.
As you hit the study, which I found very interesting, I miss more individuals in the comparison. For example, we don't know how the brain of a man who is a baby's primary caregiver works when his partner is a woman, who acts as a secondary caregiver. And in this couple, we don't know how the woman's brain acts either. Perhaps by exercising the role that parents usually carry out, their more emotional part of the brain becomes less active and social is activated more ... or perhaps the emotional one remains active and increases the "paternal network".
It would be good for future research to take this into account because we can see how the choices that each couple makes when caring for and raising their baby prepares us in one way or another, depending on our role.
For now, and as a father who plays the role of secondary caregiver, I am clear that my life changed by having my children. It didn't happen on the first day, I already told it once, but little by little, over time, I became more and more a caring, worried and conscious father. If my brain changed with me, I don't know ... I imagine so, but it doesn't worry me either.
