This panel, featuring leading researchers Darby Saxbe and Susana Carmona, and moderated by Michael Feigelson, will explore the profound brain changes that occur during parenthood and caregiving, and dive into how this life stage is a powerful window of opportunity for human development.
Darby Saxbe, PhD has studied fathers and families for over twenty years, running pioneering research on how becoming a father reshapes men's brain architecture, hormones, and health. Her work covers paternal postpartum depression, the effect of hands-on caregiving on cognitive aging, and how a father's approach to play builds resilience in kids.
Susana Carmona, PhD leads the Neuromaternal Lab in Madrid, Spain, where she has built the largest multimodal database to date, deeply phenotyped, following women from preconception to several years postpartum. Her lab was the first to document the profound changes a woman's brain undergoes as she becomes a mother, and how these changes facilitate the mother-infant bond. Her work retires the "mommy brain" myth for good and may even hold the keys to identifying who is at risk for perinatal depression.
Speakers
Susana is a Senior Researcher with a PhD in neurosience at the Instituto de Investigación Biomédica del Hospital Gregorio Marañón in Madrid. She directs the neuroimaging laboratory “Neuromaternal.” A highly interdisciplinary lab that specialises in studying the human maternal brain with experts from various fields such as psychology, biology, physics, and engineering. In 2017 Susana Carmona’s team demonstrated for the first time that the anatomy of the brain in postpartum mothers 3 months after birth was different than what it was before they got pregnant for the first time. Her team explained what mothers already sensed: motherhood transforms us. Carmona, Psychologist and Neuroscience Doctor, directs the Neuromaternal research group at the Gregorio Marañon Hospital in Madrid, this group researches the brain changes that come with pregnancy and motherhood. In her book Neuromaternal, she gathers scientific information about this process and asks and answers many important questions about pregnancy, a condition that nearly 85% of women experience at some point in their life.
Susana Carmona, PhD
Instituto de Investigación Biomédica del Hospital Gregorio Marañón
Darby Saxbe, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and tenured full professor of psychology at the University of Southern California.
She has published over eighty scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and secured major research grants from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. She earned awards from the American Psychological Association and the Society for Research in Child Development and was a Fulbright fellow. Dr. Saxbe received her PhD in clinical psychology from UCLA and her BA in English and psychology from Yale University.
Her research focuses on the transition to parenthood, particularly the neural and hormonal underpinnings of fatherhood. She integrates neuroscience and psychology to explore how close connections shape health and wellbeing. Recently published "Dad Brain", Saxbe leverages over 15 years of research to take a deep dive into the science of fatherhood—how it changes men's brains, bodies, mental health and relationships.
Darby Saxbe, PhD
USC
Michael Feigelson has worked for Van Leer since 2007. Prior to his current role as CEO, he served as the Executive Director of the Bernard van Leer Foundation from 2014–2019. Before this he held several other positions including programme director, programme manager and programme officer.
Before Van Leer, Michael spent most of his career serving grassroots and non-profit organisations in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe working with homeless and displaced children and families. Early in his career he also spent time as a business analyst at McKinsey & Company. He has degrees from Wesleyan and Princeton Universities, was a Thomas J. Watson fellow and served as a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Behaviour.
Michael enjoys writing (read some of his writing here), swimming and cycling. He is most proud of his role as a father to his daughter with whom he shares a love of music, books and chocolate.
Michael Feigelson
Van Leer Foundation
Details
When: Tuesday, September 1st, 1:00 - 2:00 PM ET
Where: Zoom