My Baby Versus the World: Fathers’ Neural Processing of Own‐Infant, Unfamiliar‐Infant, and Romantic Partner Stimuli

Parents activate brain regions linked with social cognition, reward processing, and emotion when viewing their own infant. Neural responses to own‐infant stimuli may be driven by familiarity, self‐relevance, or by the unique features of infant faces. The current study sought to clarify these distinctions in first‐time fathers by contrasting video stimuli of their infant, an unfamiliar infant, and their pregnant partner.