Does fatherhood change your brain?
In the wake of the just-plain-bonkers Forbes article of this week -- which argued that men shouldn't marry "career women" because they won't make subservient enough wives -- I was intrigued to read about some claims in a new study: That fatherhood can affect the structure of your brain, making it more goal-oriented.
At least, if you're a marmoset. A handful of neurologists recently decided to examine the brains of father marmosets. Why? Because male marmosets are exceptionally devoted to their children -- they carry 'em around more than half the time, passing them to the mothers only when the kids need feeding. The scientists theorized that this unusual behavior might cause, or be the result of, slightly tweaked brain structure. Sure enough, when they examined father marmosets, they found that their prefrontal cortexes had suggestions of higher neural activity -- more dendtritic spikes. The cortexes also had more receptors for vasopressin, a molecule that influences social behaviour and pair-bonding.
As the Economist reported:
Craig Kinsley of the University of Richmond, Virginia, who did the work with rat mothers, speculates that Dr Gould's new findings may reflect human behaviour quite closely. "There is a lot of interest in the idea that having children forces responsibility on males in many respects. If you consider that the prefrontal cortex plays a major role in planning, judgment and the anticipation of the consequences of behaviour, you could make a clear argument that the changes in that part of the brain would be involved with judicious attention toward offspring."
Given that my infant son is now 8 months old, I wonder if my brain is loaded down with tons of juicy vasopressin? I actually don't have much to add to this, other than the admission that I think I posted this study primarily so I could run a picture of fuzzy little marmosets.
(Thanks to SciTech Daily for this one!)
Posted by Clive Thompson at August 25, 2006 05:11 PM
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Nice picture. Maybe I'm missing something, but couldn't the mental demands of fatherhood in marmosets and humans result in geater nerve activity in the pre-frontal lobe for the same reason that any change in your life that requires intense planning, problem-solving and ingenuity will produce increased brain activity? Even with a university degree (or maybe as a result of a university education), I found fatherhood to be quite challenging and it has provided plenty of mental stimulation. My prior experiences certainly didn't prepare me for fatherhood, and although everyone and their dog offers plenty of advice, you soon discover that you need to filter most of that advice. Living with your mate also becomes more challenging when offspring are added to the family unit, and I'm sure that also produces increased brain activity. The article in the Economist doesn't make it clear if this study found brain changes that only occur with the onset of fatherhood, otherwise this looks to me like an article inserted to liven up the periodical, not a scientific breakthrough. Anyway, marmosets sure are cute little furry creatures, aren't they?
BTW, the furor over marrying career women is a bit overblown, IMHO. The problem with statistical analysis of sociological phenomenon is that it makes something like having a successful marriage look like a piece of cake, as long as you run your life according to probabilities. In real life, marriage is hard work, even if you do everything suggested by the sociologists.
Posted by: rglasel at August 25, 2006 10:06 PM
Fatherhood has certainly changed this braine.
Posted by: braine at August 28, 2006 10:16 AM
rlglasel, yeah, I'm always a bit suspicious of any study that points to the prefrontal cortex, simply because it's involved in so many mental activities that it would seem awfully hard to definitively prove a causal link between a particular experience/task and prefrontal cortical activity or growth.
Braine, heh.
Posted by: Clive at August 28, 2006 11:26 AM
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Nice picture. Maybe I'm missing something, but couldn't the mental demands of fatherhood in marmosets and humans result in geater nerve activity in the pre-frontal lobe for the same reason that any change in your life that requires intense planning, problem-solving and ingenuity will produce increased brain activity? Even with a university degree (or maybe as a result of a university education), I found fatherhood to be quite challenging and it has provided plenty of mental stimulation. My prior experiences certainly didn't prepare me for fatherhood, and although everyone and their dog offers plenty of advice, you soon discover that you need to filter most of that advice. Living with your mate also becomes more challenging when offspring are added to the family unit, and I'm sure that also produces increased brain activity. The article in the Economist doesn't make it clear if this study found brain changes that only occur with the onset of fatherhood, otherwise this looks to me like an article inserted to liven up the periodical, not a scientific breakthrough. Anyway, marmosets sure are cute little furry creatures, aren't they?
BTW, the furor over marrying career women is a bit overblown, IMHO. The problem with statistical analysis of sociological phenomenon is that it makes something like having a successful marriage look like a piece of cake, as long as you run your life according to probabilities. In real life, marriage is hard work, even if you do everything suggested by the sociologists.
Posted by: rglasel![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 25, 2006 10:06 PM
Fatherhood has certainly changed this braine.
Posted by: braine![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 28, 2006 10:16 AM
rlglasel, yeah, I'm always a bit suspicious of any study that points to the prefrontal cortex, simply because it's involved in so many mental activities that it would seem awfully hard to definitively prove a causal link between a particular experience/task and prefrontal cortical activity or growth.
Braine, heh.
Posted by: Clive![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 28, 2006 11:26 AM