title: Differential neural responses to child and sexual stimuli in human fathers and non-fathers and their hormonal correlates.
abstract: Despite the well-documented importance of paternal caregiving for positive child development, little is known about the neural changes that accompany the transition to fatherhood in humans, or about how changes in hormone levels affect paternal brain function. We compared fathers of children aged 1-2 with non-fathers in terms of hormone levels (oxytocin and testosterone), neural responses to child picture stimuli, and neural responses to visual sexual stimuli. Compared to non-fathers, fathers had significantly higher levels of plasma oxytocin and lower levels of plasma testosterone. In response to child picture stimuli, fathers showed stronger activation than non-fathers within regions important for face emotion processing (caudal middle frontal gyrus [MFG]), mentalizing (temporo-parietal junction [TPJ]) and reward processing (medial orbitofrontal cortex [mOFC]). On the other hand, non-fathers had significantly stronger neural responses to sexually provocative images in regions important for reward and approach-related motivation (dorsal caudate and nucleus accumbens). Testosterone levels were negatively correlated with responses to child stimuli in the MFG. Surprisingly, neither testosterone nor oxytocin levels predicted neural responses to sexual stimuli. Our results suggest that the decline in testosterone that accompanies the transition to fatherhood may be important for augmenting empathy toward children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Emory University, 207 Anthropology Building, 1557 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, 1639 Pierce Drive, Suite 4000, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA; Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Emory University, PO Box 3966, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Mascaro
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Emory University, 207 Anthropology Building, 1557 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
authors.forename: Patrick D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Hackett
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Emory University, 207 Anthropology Building, 1557 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, 1639 Pierce Drive, Suite 4000, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA; Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Emory University, PO Box 3966, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA; Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, Emory University, USA. Electronic address: jrillin@emory.edu.
authors.forename: James K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Rilling
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D004645:Empathy; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006728:Hormones / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D059906:Neuroimaging; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012201:Reward; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D013739:Testosterone / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D006728:Hormones; D013739:Testosterone; D010121:Oxytocin
keywords: Empathy; Fathers; Inferior frontal gyrus; Orbitofrontal cortex; Oxytocin; Testosterone; fMRI