Linda 🟧 🇺🇦💙🇮🇱🟦

Your baby’s brain isn’t the only one that’s developing. I’ve written a good bit about the brain development of newborns and how to stimulate it. But today I want to talk about the developing brains of parents - which research suggests also change concurrent with pregnancy and childbirth. Changes in adult brains thought to facilitate sensitive caregiving have been measured in both mothers and fathers. In mothers, distinct changes in the cerebral cortex (including regions linked to thinking about others minds) and subcortex (linked with emotion and motivation) have been measured - so much so that in a study conducted by Spanish researchers, an algorithm was able to readily distinguish between the brains of childless women and those of new mothers. Dads’ brains change too, with fathers demonstrating changes in regions of the cortex that contribute to visual processing, attention, and empathy toward the baby. Both are examples of what neuroscientists call experience dependent neuroplasticity (changes in the structure of the brain associated with specific life experiences). Here’s a lovely example of “Dad Brain” on display. If you can watch it to the end without tearing up you’re doing better than me. Dads will know the feeling. This beautiful video was shared to IG by iamtayloso.