My POV of this 2014 Israeli study’s findings, at the risk of being dragged into the politically-correct quagmire:
- Mothers (heterosexual primary-caregiving) mainly used areas of their limbic systems to care for children;
- Fathers (heterosexual secondary-caregiving) mainly used areas of their cerebrums to care for children;
- Fathers (homosexual primary-caregiving) mainly used both their limbic systems and cerebrums to care for children.
Findings of the “duh” variety:
- Women have a built-in capacity to care for children before they have children;
- Men can learn to care for children;
- Both sexes can be skilled child caregivers when we put time and effort into it.
“Although only mothers experience pregnancy, birth, and lactation, and these provide powerful primers for the expression of maternal care via amygdala sensitization, evolution created other pathways for adaptation to the parental role in human fathers, and these alternative pathways come with practice, attunement, and day-by-day caregiving.”
http://www.pnas.org/content/111/27/9792.full “Father’s brain is sensitive to childcare experiences”
