It could be the tiniest little yelp or total crocodile tears – as soon as our babies start to cry, it feels like we’re hard-wired to rush to their aid, like Super Mum!

 

We’re not that surprised to learn, then, that that is a built-in biological reaction.

 

According to research carried out by a team at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a mother’s brain is wired to activate in response to hearing her baby’s cries. And it’s the exactly the same for mothers across the board – no matter where they’re from.

 

As part of the study, the team analysed data from 648 new mothers, from 11 countries: the US, Argentina, Brazil, France, Italy, Belgium, Cameroon, Kenya, South Korea, Japan and Israel.

 

 

They watched each mother during a one-hour interaction with their babies, aged five months. During their sessions, they recorded if the mother’s response to her baby’s crying was to pick them up and hold them, to talk to them, to nurture them, to be affectionate to them, or to distract them.

 

According to the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, each mother was more likely to pick up, hold or talk to their babies.

 

In a supporting study, they also investigated brain activity on other groups of mothers exposed to their babies’ cries – and the results were fascinating.

 

The team found that specific areas of the mother’s brain were stimulated when they heard their babies crying – the superior temporal regions, supplementary motor area and inferior frontal regions, which are all involved in sound and speech.

 

According to the researchers, this is evidence that mothers’ brains are generally wired to respond in one common and nurturing way to their babies’ cries.

Latest

Trending