For better and for worse, the link between biological parents and their children is well known, from a child inheriting a mother’s wit and skill at math to inheriting a father’s nose and short temper. It turns out children also cause a change in a father’s brain, according to new evidence, improving their ability to empathize and process things visually.
Researchers from the University of Southern California found that women aren’t the only ones who go through physical change when they become parents. Men’s brains, according to a research study published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, undergo measurable changes after their children arrive.
Those changes involve slight brain shrinkage that contributes to neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to create and form new synaptic connections to adapt to new experiences. In layperson’s terms, it affects areas in the brain linked to empathy and visual processing.
