How Fatherhood Changes Men's Brains And Bodies Forever

We know how women’s bodies adapt to motherhood. Hormonal shifts, neurological flips, and, of course, the obvious post-partum biological changes. But only recently have scientists begun to focus on how men’s bodies adapt to fatherhood . We now know that fathers experience changes in their hormone levels (especially testosterone and oxytocin); their brains respond differently to parent-related stimuli, and even their socioeconomic status tends to change once children arrive. Here’s the data behind these conclusions: Fathers Experience A Testosterone Dip, An Oxytocin Spike In 2014, a team of scientists at Emory University recruited 88 heterosexual, biological, married fathers of children between the ages of 1 and 2, for an unprecedented experiment . They tested their hormone levels (among other metrics) and compared these results to a group of 50 non-fathers. One of the most striking results is depicted below. Compared to non-fathers, dads had lower levels of testosterone, a male hormone linked to aggression, and higher levels of oxytocin, a hormone thought to play a role in maternal (and now, perhaps, paternal) attachment. The findings suggest that fathers, not just mothers, experience hormonal changes to help them adapt to their new roles as highly attached and less aggressive caregivers. Dad Brains Change, Too After running the hormone analysis, the researchers at Emory took the experiment one step further. They hooked each man up to an fMRI—which measures activation of diffe…