Do Fathers Matter: Influencing Neural Phenotypes Through Non-Genetic Transmission of Paternal Experiences?

Abstract

Understanding the role of fathers and how paternal experiences actually influence offspring outcomes is a rapidly growing field of research. This Lamarkian mode of inheritance offers offspring an additional mechanism for environmental adaptation that can occur in a single generation, rather than waiting for chance mutations in DNA that may or may not increase an individual's chances for survival. This review article examines the influences of many paternal experiences including, stress, drugs, and alcohol, along with enrichment, exercise, diet and paternal age, on offspring neural phenotypes. Where possible, there is also discussion of the underlying mechanisms that facilitate the transmission of these experiences to the offspring. Although previous ideologies maintained a small role for fathers (merely as sperm-donors) in the developmental trajectories of the offspring they sired, research now demonstrates that they influence a wide range of outcomes such as drug and alcohol tolerance, susceptibility to mental illness, and patterning of the hypothalamic- pituitary-adrenal (HPA) stress response. These novel findings emphasize the complexity and extensive realm of factors that can influence the development of offspring neural phenotypes.