From Lab to Life: Fatherhood Changes Our Brains

Neuroscience has shown that impactful events in our lives actually alter our brains.  It’s another instance of how our amazing brains adapt to challenges and change – known as neuroplasticity.

An article in Scientific American (June 22/2026) by Tanya Lewis interviews Dr. Devika Bhushan, physician and faculty member at Stanford, who has studied how fatherhood affects “dad’s brains”.  Most research has focused on mom’s brains, understandably.  Kudos to Dr. Bhushan for checking us dads.

[I myself am a father of four, grandpa of 18, and awaiting great-grandchild #7! Nothing I have done in life comes close to the joy and satisfaction of being a dad…and watching our offspring thrive].

Bhushan notes, in the interview, a startling result:  “studies of men in Spain and California showed that they experienced reductions in gray matter after they became fathers – much like studies have shown in first-time mothers.”   *   [Quote from it: “This study provides convergent evidence for cortical structural changes in fathers, supporting the possibility that the transition to fatherhood may represent a meaningful window of experience-induced structural neuroplasticity in males.”

*Magdalena Martínez-García, María Paternina-Die, Sofia I Cardenas, Oscar Vilarroya, Manuel Desco, Susanna Carmona, Darby E Saxbe, First-time fathers show longitudinal gray matter cortical volume reductions: evidence from two international samples, Cerebral Cortex, Volume 33, Issue 7, 1 April 2023, Pages 4156–4163, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhac333

What?  Parenthood shrinks our brains?

Hold on.  Here’s the story.  “This shrinking likely doesn’t represent a decline in brain function but rather a ‘pruning’ of connections that could make the brain more efficient for the demands of caregiving.”

The part of parents’ brains that control emotion expand – clearly, to boost parental love, empathy and care.   Studies have shown that the expansion occurs in the areas“…comprising a part of the brain’s cortex called the mentalizing network, which plays a role in visual processing and empathy, and a subcortical emotional processing network, which involves vigilance and reward processing.”   Love, empathy, vigilance…

Bhushan asserts that the changes in our parental brains are not purely biological in nature, but result from the caregiving itself.

And a postscript:  “As many as one in 10 men experience postnatal depression or anxiety.  The symptoms often look different in dads…”.