Development of the paternal brain in expectant fathers during early pregnancy

• Main Authors: Françoise Diaz-Rojas, Michiko Matsunaga, Yukari Tanaka, Takefumi Kikusui, Kazutaka Mogi, Miho Nagasawa, Kohei Asano, Nobuhito Abe, Masako Myowa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-01-01
• Series: NeuroImage
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811920310120

The human parenting brain network mediates caregiving behaviors. When exposed to the stimuli of their infants, compared with non-parents, both fathers and mothers exhibit distinct patterns of neural activation. As human males, relative to females, do not undergo robust physiological changes during pregnancy, when and how the paternal brain networks begin to form remains unclear. Thus, using functional MRI, we examined brain activation in response to infant-interaction videos in two groups, childless males and first-time expectant fathers during their partners’ early pregnancy before remarkable changes in their partners’ appearances commenced. Multivoxel pattern analysis revealed that expectant fathers’ left anterior insula and inferior frontal gyrus showed incipient changes in response to parenthood during early pregnancy. Furthermore, these changes were associated with several paternal traits, such as a negative image toward parenting. Such external factors might influence the paternal brain's development during early pregnancy.