Gay parents brains resemble that of new fathers and mothers, a new study reported on Monday.
Researchers at Bar-Ilan University in Israel compared the brain scans of new moms, new straight dads, and new gay dads, and found that the gay dads developed brain patterns that resemble both mothers and fathers.
Researchers recorded 89 new parents taking care of their baby at home, then measured the parents' brain activity in an MRI while the parents watched the videos shot in their homes. Researchers found that the new mothers had more brain activity in the parts of the brain that handle emotion, while the new heterosexual dads had an increase in brain activity in the part of their brain that interpreted the babies cries and body movements.
Brain activity of a new mother changes drastically after having a baby. This study shows that when gay couples adopt a child, the brain activity changes to resemble that of both a new mother and father.
Researchers found that new gay dads had increased brain activity in both the parts of their brain that handled emotion, and the part of their brain that handled things like interpreting the babies cries and non-verbal cues.
The oxytocin level in all three groups was checked and showed no difference. According to the study author, Ruth Feldman, pregnancy and childbirth hormones causes changes in the amygdala in women.
On the other hand men's brain is not used for interpreting the needs of the child in a mother's presence. However, when the need arise; as in the case of gay fathers, the emotion processing 'amygdala' was activated and working all the time. He further added that that all three study group are ready for parenthood biologically.
