According to a Finnish study, there is a link between the stress felt by men during their childhood and the production of white matter in their newborns.
Dad and baby are more connected than you think! According to a study from the University of Turku (Finland) published in the journal Pediatrics, the anxiety felt during a father’s childhood would have a positive impact on his newborn baby.
To arrive at such an observation, 72 families whose babies were between two and five weeks old were questioned. The fathers then took a questionnaire on five key points: emotional neglect, emotional abuse, physical neglect, physical abuse and sexual abuse.
Newborns have undergone MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging) which scans their brains. They thus measured "fractional anistropy" of the white matter of the brain, allowing a measurement of the density of the fibers.
As a result, the researchers observed a faster development of white matter in babies whose fathers had experienced trauma years before.
Positive consequences for the child
This white matter of the brain “Is the part comprising the axons of neurons, that is to say the" cables "connecting the different parts of the brain”, underlines Sciences et Avenir. So the researchers noticed that when babies had a higher fractional anistropia score (which is a good thing), it was linked to their father having a high score on the trauma scale.
As a result, the brains of these babies would be more mature and the babies would have a better chance of survival. "The accelerated development of the brain could be an intergenerational adaptation to the father's negative environment and therefore could increase the probability of the child's survival", emphasize the neuroscientists in their study.
So, contrary to what one might think – and surprisingly as it sounds – if a man experiences or has experienced traumatic events during his childhood, it would not necessarily have a negative impact on his life. offspring … quite the contrary.
Disclaimer: Of course, this study should be taken with a grain of salt, given the number of families surveyed.