Seminar Series

This talk will review several studies on hormone and brain changes across the transition to parenthood in first-time human fathers. Darby Saxbe et al find that men show cortical volume decreases that are similar to those seen in mothers, but are less significant and more variable. They also show that when men express more motivation to parent, and more engagement in parenting, they show larger gray matter volume decreases. At the same time, gray matter volume decreases are associated with more postpartum mental health problems and poor sleep quality. The talk will also describe research on perinatal resting state connectivity and white matter changes in men, and functional studies on men reacting to infant stimuli and emotional faces.

Darby Saxbe, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the University of Southern California, where she serves as the current Director of Clinical Training for the Clinical Science program. She has published over eighty scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, and her research has been funded by major awards from both NIH and NSF. She has earned early career recognition from the American Psychological Association and the Society for Research in Child Development and was a Fulbright fellow to Spain in 2019.