How fatherhood changes the brain

Women's brains get rewired when their child is born — and it turns out, men's do too

(Image credit: Justin Paget / Getty Images)

published 17 June 2024

What happened

Women's brains get rewired during and after pregnancy, and new research "shows that new fathers go through similar changes," The Washington Post said. Yes, "dad brain is real," Darby Saxbe, a University of Southern California psychology professor, wrote in a New York Times Father's Day column. And all things considered, "it's a good thing."

"Parenting requires unique skill sets," so it makes sense new "parents would need to adapt," the Post said. Saxbe and colleagues in Spain found through brain imaging that, like new mothers, "men experienced a reduction in gray matter before and after they became fathers," especially in the high-level cerebral cortex.

A "shrinking brain sounds like bad news," but "less can be more," Saxbe wrote in the Times. Purging gray matter "might fine-tune the brain to work more efficiently," and the more the shrinkage, the closer the bonding between father and child — though downsides may include "worse sleep and more symptoms of depression and anxiety." Depression may be exacerbated by a drop in testosterone.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.