Parenting Rewires the Male Brain 291
sciencehabit writes: "Cultures around the world have long assumed that women are hardwired to be mothers. But a new study (abstract) suggests that caring for children awakens a parenting network in the brain—even turning on some of the same circuits in men as it does in women. The research implies that the neural underpinnings of the so-called maternal instinct aren't unique to women, or activated solely by hormones, but can be developed by anyone who chooses to be a parent."
Re:I don't doubt it. (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09... [nytimes.com]
Here, we use a large representative study in the Philippines (n = 624) to show that among single nonfathers at baseline (2005) (21.5 ± 0.3 y), men with high waking T were more likely to become partnered fathers by the time of follow-up 4.5 y later (P < 0.05). Men who became partnered fathers then experienced large declines in waking (median: â'26%) and evening (median: â'34%) T, which were significantly greater than declines in single nonfathers (P < 0.001). Consistent with the hypothesis that child interaction suppresses T, fathers reporting 3 h or more of daily childcare had lower T at follow-up compared with fathers not involved in care (P < 0.05).
http://www.pnas.org/content/10... [pnas.org]
Re:I believe it because.. (Score:4, Informative)
I took my 8 month old on a plane from Atlanta to Seattle and back. Kid was fine...never cried once or disturbed anybody. Just in case, though, my wife made little "I'm sorry" kits that included ear plugs and some candy to hand out to people around us if he was disruptive.
There was another lady on the plane who did have a kid who wouldn't stop screaming. The other people around us mainly felt bad for her and she was mortified, but there was just nothing she could do. Other people tried helping her and just nothing worked. Thems the breaks.