Baby’s Smile Activates Mom’s Brain

baby smileScience may have confirmed what most moms already know: When a woman sees her baby smile, certain areas of her brain activate, stimulating happy feelings.

“There’s a definite biological origin to these feelings that mothers have,” said study author Dr. Lane Strathearn, an assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

A woman’s crying infant, or even her baby with a neutral expression, doesn’t evoke the same type of brain response as occurs when her baby is smiling, the study found.

“The contrast that showed the most response in the dopaminergic system of the brain was when a mother’s own baby smiled compared to an unknown baby face.”

“A baby’s smile is a very powerful stimulus,” noted Strathearn. “It makes sense biologically. Babies are completely and utterly dependent on their caregivers.

It makes sense that nature would build in a system that would reinforce that relationship.”

For the study, the researchers recruited 28 first-time mothers during their last trimester of pregnancy.

At that time, Strathearn said the women completed “attachment interviews” to assess the types of experiences they had when being raised and what type of relationship these mothers had with their own parents.

Read more information at LiveScience

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