The parenting brain may undergo remodeling that supports the adjustment to new parenthood. Prior work on human mothers has found gray matter volume decreases from preconception to early postpartum in multiple structures, including the left hippocampus, which was the only structure to show gray matter volume recovery at 2 years postpartum. This is consistent with evidence from animal models that the hippocampus is unusually plastic across reproductive transitions. However, no studies have focused specifically on hippocampal volume changes in human fathers. Among 38 men who were scanned by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before and after having their first child, individual differences in left hippocampal volume changes were associated with men's prenatal oxytocin, postpartum testosterone, and postpartum adaptation to parenthood. Across the whole sample, hippocampal volumes did not change significantly from prenatal to postpartum. However, men who showed larger increases in left hippocampal volume from prenatal to postpartum reported stronger parent–child bonding and affectionate attachment and lower parenting stress. Fathers with higher levels of prenatal oxytocin showed larger left hippocampal volume increases across the transition to parenthood. In turn, greater increases in left hippocampal volume predicted lower postpartum testosterone after adjusting for prenatal testosterone. These findings did not extend to the right hippocampus. In conclusion, remodeling of the left hippocampus across the transition to new fatherhood may reflect adaptation to parenthood in human males.
Testosterone and oxytocin are psychobiological mechanisms that interrelate with relationship quality between parents and the quantity and quality of parenting behaviors, thereby affecting child outcomes. Their joint production based on family dynamics has rarely been tested, particularly cross‐culturally.
We explored family function and salivary testosterone and oxytocin in mothers and fathers in a small‐scale, fishing‐farming society in Republic of the Congo. Fathers ranked one another in three domains of family life pertaining to the local cultural model of fatherhood.
Fathers who were viewed as better providers had relatively lower oxytocin and higher testosterone than men seen as poorer providers, who had lower testosterone and higher oxytocin. Fathers also had higher testosterone and lower oxytocin in marriages with more conflict, while those who had less marital conflict had reduced testosterone and higher oxytocin. In contrast, mothers in conflicted marriages showed the opposite profiles of relatively lower testosterone and higher oxytocin. Mothers had higher oxytocin and lower testosterone if fathers were uninvolved as direct caregivers, while mothers showed an opposing pattern for the two hormones if fathers were seen as involved with direct care.
These results shed new light on parents' dual oxytocin and testosterone profiles in a small‐scale society setting and highlight the flexibility of human parental psychobiology when fathers' roles and functions within families differ across cultures.
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10459819
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Brain and Behavior
- Volume:
- 9
- Issue:
- 9
- ISSN:
- 2162-3279
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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