Brain shrinkage in new dads after first child: Study

Parents often feel exhausted when taking care of children. Raising the kids is a full-time job that can be physically and emotionally demanding. It's important for parents to prioritize self-care in order to avoid burnout. However, a recent study suggests there are things which are out of one's control, like the shrinking of the brain. After the birth of their first child, brain shrinkage occurs in new dads.But the men are not doomed as the study comes with a glimmer of hope.

According to scientists, these changes that take place in men's brains are crucial to become a good parent.

What about mother's brains?

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Although a comparable shrinkage impact has previously been observed in new moms, the current study is first-of-its-kind. It clearly demonstrates that this phenomenon also takes place in dads, albeit in a more subtle manner. It means that even among parents who don't go through the life-changing experience of pregnancy, physiological change might take place.

Darby Saxbe, the senior author of the study says there is nothing to get worried about from this study as “change can be a good thing."

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Saxbe, a psychologist at the University of Southern California, who focuses on the mental effects of becoming a parent, explains it is a positive change.She refers to this as neuroplasticity, which is the brain's capacity to adapt to new circumstances.

Our brains continually remove old synapses to create room for new ones as we age. It takes place when we pick up the language as infants when we develop emotionally as teenagers, and when we pick up new abilities as adults.

“Infants require constant care, so it makes a lot of sense that the brain would need to remodel to reflect that,” says Saxbe.

However, in comparison to new moms, the effect on fathers is subtle. It includes a reduction of about one per cent in the men's brain’s cortical regions. This is notably seen in the visual and default mode networks. These areas of the brain are involved with attention and empathy.

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Lead author Magdalena Martinez-Garcia, a neuroscience PhD student at the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón in Madrid explained that this can aid the news dads to understand and also anticipate the baby’s needs.

The outcome of the study was after the analysis of magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of the brains of 40 first-time fathers. For the study, out of the 40 fathers, 20 were from Barcelona and 20 were from Los Angeles.

Despite the study’s small size and subtle results, an expert who was uninvolved in the research is excited about its findings.

“It indirectly provides evidence that these types of brain changes might occur for people who don’t directly experience pregnancy,” says Pilyoung Kim, a psychologist at the University of Denver said.

There are positives in the study for new moms as well which suggests that these neurological changes can help mothers to forge a much emotional bond with their babies

The brain alterations in dads are not only smaller. The differences between participants are likewise much greater. The authors of the study hypothesise that this may be caused by individual variances in parental participation, as well as changes in cultural settings or paternity leave laws. The study was too tiny to establish firmer results, so these notions remain wildly speculative.

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Experts suggest that the next step in improving our understanding of how our brains react to motherhood is separating out how these cultural influences interact.

“Everything that we do is mediated through the brain, so I think understanding the brain is critical to understanding the experience the parents have during this period of time,” says Kim.

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