Having Children Changes Gay Fathers’ Brains

Raising children changes the brains of gay men so that the new pattern has characteristics of both new mothers and new fathers. According to the new study by Ruth Feldman of Bar-Ilan University in Israel, new mothers have a hyper-reaction in the amygdala to the child’s cries and other emotional cues. Fathers involved in raising babies have increased activation of cognitive circuits. Gay fathers had both these responses. The assumption is that playing both parental roles causes the brain to integrate these structures.

Gay fathers had extra communication lines between emotional cognitive structures, but heterosexual fathers did not.

 

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