Gay dads’ brain activity ‘resemble both mothers and fathers’
By Sam Rigby
New research has found that the brain activity of new gay fathers resembles that of both new mothers and new fathers.
It has provided the first evidence of changes in the brains of gay men who are raising children they have adopted through surrogacy, Reuters reports.
The study was conducted in Israel and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It used 20 heterosexual mothers and 21 heterosexual fathers, alongside 48 homosexual fathers.
The study found that mothers have increased activity brain’s emotion-processing regions when watching their baby, as opposed to fathers, who experience increased activity of their cognitive circuits.
The study found that gay fathers show increased activity in the emotion-processing regions of their brain, while their cognitive circuits showed the same extra activity as heterosexual fathers.
It is hoped that the findings could be used in the debate over whether gay men should be allowed to adopt children, particularly in the US, where many adoption agencies refuse to let gay couples adopt.
Neuropsychologist Ruth Feldman said: “Fathers’ brains are very plastic. When there are two fathers, their brains must recruit both networks, the emotional and cognitive, for optimal parenting.”
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