Darby Saxbe

And parenthood is one example of a window of plasticity where we want a brain that can mold itself to serve the functions of a parent.

And that's exactly one of the reasons I wanted to write this book, right?

Because we sort of assume like women are built to kind of parent instinctively.

And it's really the opposite.

It's as we engage in parenting, we learn and then we sort of build a neurobiology that supports that.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

We all have this sort of parenting brain that's ready to go when we are ready to deploy it.

Yes.

I love it and I hate it.

And it's because the research literature is a mess on oxytocin because it's super hard to sample it well.

So you've probably heard it's the cuddle hormone.

It's the love hormone.

Yeah, exactly.

If you hug for 20 seconds, you get a release.

Yeah, massage.

And all of that has a grain of truth, but it's hard to sample it because by the time it gets to your bloodstream, it's already moved on.

Like it's an organ that's active in the brain.

So if you really want to sample it accurately, you need to take cerebral spinal fluid, which, you know, not a great idea.

No one wants to come into the lab and do a spinal tap.