The Neurobiology of Fatherhood: A Comparative Study in a Changing Society

With the changing social attitudes, growing number of women in the work force, and new family structures, most young children in the 21st century are growing up with some form of father involvement and coparental care, yet the neurobiology of fatherhood is among the least researched topics in human development. Such emphasis on mothering stands in contrast to the fact that father absence has been repeatedly identified as a risk factor for conduct disorders, delinquency, and violence. The current proposal aims to conduct, for the first time, a comprehensive comparative study of fathering that addresses neuroendocrine and brain changes associated with fathering in human and bi-parental animal model and assess their impact on the offspring's brain, social, neuroendocrine, and stress-related outcomes. A variety of uniparental, biparental, and father-absent family structures will be tested in the animal model, paralleled by co-parental, gay, and singlemother families. Using state-of the-art methodologies, we will measure central (genetic, OT administration) and peripheral Oxytocin (plasma, saliva), brain imaging (2FDG, SPECT, fMRI, MEG), neuroanatomical, endocrine, epigenetic, and behavioral components of fathering. The recent media coverage our work on fatherhood indicates that the findings have the potential to make important contributions to both the scientific community and general public.