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The Neural Basis of Human Fatherhood: A Unique Biocultural Perspective on Plasticity of Brain and Behavior

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Who rides there so late through the night dark and drear?

The father it is, with his infant so dear;

He holdeth the boy tightly clasp'd in his arm,

He holdeth him safely, he keepeth him warm.

(From "Erlkönig" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe).

Abstract

With the growing involvement of fathers in childrearing and the application of neuroscientific tools to research on parenting, there is a need to understand how a father's brain and neurohormonal systems accommodate the transition to parenthood and how such neurobiological changes impact children's mental health, sociality, and family functioning. In this paper, we present a theoretical model on the human father’s brain and the neural adaptations that take place when fathers assume an involved role. The neurobiology of fatherhood shows great variability across individuals, societies, and cultures and is shaped to a great extent by bottom-up caregiving experiences and the amount of childrearing responsibilities. Mechanisms of mother-father coparental brain coordination and hormonal correlates of paternal behavior are detailed. Adaptations in the father’s brain during pregnancy and across the postpartum year carry long-term implications for children's emotion regulation, stress management, and symptom formation. We propose a new conceptual model of HEALthy Father Brain that describes how a father’s brain serves as a source of resilience in the context of family adversity and its capacity to “heal”, protect, and foster social brain maturation and functionality in family members via paternal sensitivity, attunement, and support, which, in turn, promote child development and healthy family functioning. Father’s brain provides a unique model on neural plasticity as sustained by committed acts of caregiving, thereby affording a novel perspective on the brain basis of human affiliation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Developmental Social Neuroscience, Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Reichman University, 46150, Herzliya, Israel

    Eyal Abraham & Ruth Feldman

  2. Department of Psychiatry-Child and Adolescent, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA

    Eyal Abraham

  3. Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Ruth Feldman

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Abraham, E., Feldman, R. The Neural Basis of Human Fatherhood: A Unique Biocultural Perspective on Plasticity of Brain and Behavior. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 25, 93–109 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-022-00381-9

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