Differential neural responses to child and sexual stimuli in human fathers and non-fathers and their hormonal correlates.

ABSTRACT: Despite the well-documented importance of paternal caregiving for positive child development, little is known about the neural changes that accompany the transition to fatherhood in humans, or about how changes in hormone levels affect paternal brain function. We compared fathers of children aged 1-2 with non-fathers in terms of hormone levels (oxytocin and testosterone), neural responses to child picture stimuli, and neural responses to visual sexual stimuli. Compared to non-fathers, fathers had significantly higher levels of plasma oxytocin and lower levels of plasma testosterone. In response to child picture stimuli, fathers showed stronger activation than non-fathers within regions important for face emotion processing (caudal middle frontal gyrus [MFG]), mentalizing (temporo-parietal

SUBMITTER: Mascaro JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4404163 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature