Men's brains shrink when they become fathers, scientists have found.

The study involved forty volunteers from two countries who were preparing to become fathers for the first time. They underwent MRI examinations before their partner's pregnancy, during it, and also several months after the birth of the child. The results showed that in fathers, unlike mothers, the structure of the limbic system of the brain, which is responsible for motivation and internal reward, does not change with the birth of a child. But the restructuring occurs in the cerebral cortex, affecting the visual cortex and areas associated with the network of the passive mode of the brain. Perhaps the changes in the brain are designed to help fathers more easily recognize their child and be more willing to respond to him, the authors of the study say.