A baby's smile is a natural high

July 07, 2008

The baby's smile that gladdens a mother's heart also lights up the reward centers of her brain, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in a report that appears in the journal Pediatrics today.

The finding could help scientists figure out the special mother-infant bond and how it sometimes go wrong, said Dr. Lane Strathearn, assistant professor of pediatrics at BCM and Texas Children's Hospital and a research associate in BCM's Human Neuroimaging Laboratory.

"The relationship between mothers and infants is critical for child development," said Strathearn. "For whatever reason, in some cases, that relationship doesn't develop normally. Neglect and abuse can result, with devastating effects on a child's development."

To study this relationship, Strathearn and his colleagues asked 28 first-time mothers with infants aged 5 to 10 months to watch photos of their own babies and other infants while they were in a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. The machine measures blood flow in the brain. In the scans, areas of increased blood flow "light up," giving researchers a clue as to where brain activity takes place.

In some of the photos, babies were smiling or happy. In others they were sad, and in some they had neutral expressions.

They found that when the mothers saw their own infants' faces, key areas of the brain associated with reward lit up during the scans.

The areas stimulated by the sight of their own babies were those associated with the neurotransmitter dopamine. Specifically, the areas associated included the ventral tegmental area/substantia nigra regions, the striatum, and frontal lobe regions involved in emotion processing, cognition and motor/behavioral outputs.

"These are areas that have been activated in other experiments associated with drug addiction," said Strathearn. "It may be that seeing your own baby's smiling face is like a 'natural high' ".

The strength of the reaction depended on the baby's facial expression, he said.

"The strongest activation was with smiling faces," he said. There was less effect from pictures of their babies with sad or neutral expressions.

"We were expecting a different reaction with sad faces," he said. In fact, they found little difference in the reaction of the mothers' brains to their own babies' crying face compared to that of an unknown child.

Overall, the mothers responded much more strongly to their own infants' faces than to those of an unknown baby.

"Understanding how a mother responds uniquely to her own infant, when smiling or crying, may be the first step in understanding the neural basis of mother-infant attachment," said Strathearn.

Baylor College of Medicine

---

---

	Mother-Infant Bonding: A Scientific Fiction by Dr. Diane E. Eyer (Author) Two decades ago two pediatricians published a series of articles and books arguing that mothers and their infants must be physically close immediately after birth in order for their future relationship to develop properly. Their studies were inspired by research on animals-especially goats-showing that they reject their offspring if they have been separated even briefly right after birth. Some child care experts expanded on this idea and proclaimed that mother-infant bonding should be continued for the first year of a child's life. In spite of the fact that the research findings on bonding have now been dismissed by most of the scientific community, women are still told that the need to bond is a reason not to go back to work after having a baby, social workers are taught that bonding is...
	Becoming Parents: Exploring the Bonds between Mothers, Fathers, and their Infants by Judith A. Feeney (Author), Lydia Hohaus (Author), Patricia Noller (Author), Richard P. Alexander (Author) What happens to couples when they become parents? Becoming Parents presents a landmark study of the transition to parenthood and its effects on individual well-being and couple relationships. Researchers in the study tracked 100 couples who were first-time parents and a comparison sample of couples who were not. The couples gave interviews, recorded domestic tasks and completed questionaires--at the second trimester of pregnancy, as well as 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months after the baby was born. The research, based on adult attachment theory, gives us a comprehensive and contemporary picture of what it is like to be a parent today. Encompassing the perspectives of both women and men, Becoming Parents addresses such issues as the changing nature of couples' relationships, the division of...
	Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel (Author) From the best-selling author of Fun Home, Time magazine’s No. 1 Book of the Year, a brilliantly told graphic memoir of Alison Bechdel becoming the artist her mother wanted to be. Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home was a pop culture and literary phenomenon. Now, a second thrilling tale of filial sleuthery, this time about her mother: voracious reader, music lover, passionate amateur actor. Also a woman, unhappily married to a closeted gay man, whose artistic aspirations simmered under the surface of Bechdel's childhood . . . and who stopped touching or kissing her daughter good night, forever, when she was seven. Poignantly, hilariously, Bechdel embarks on a quest for answers concerning the mother-daughter gulf. It's a richly layered search that leads readers from the fascinating life...
	Becoming Attached: Unfolding the Mystery of the Infant-Mother Bond and Its Impact on Later Life by Robert Karen (Author) With keen insights, compelling arguments, and challenging theories, psychotherapist Robert Karen presents an eye-opening, lively treatment of the mystery of how personalities are formed and what children need in order to thrive emotionally.
	The Baby Bond: The New Science Behind What's Really Important When Caring for Your Baby by Linda F. Palmer (Author)
	The Single Mother's Guide to Raising Remarkable Boys by Gina Panettieri (Author), Philip S. Hall (Author) As a single mother to a growing son, you take on many roles: coach, chef, cheerleader, buddy, housekeeper, teacher, disciplinarian, and nurturer. The Single Mother's Guide to Raising Remarkable Boys helps you juggle all these roles with aplomb. You'll also learn how to help your son: Succeed at school Excel on the sports field Find an appropriate male role model Socialize and combat peer pressure Deal with sex, drugs, and video games Complete with resources and recommended strategies for every stage of a boy's life, The Single Mother's Guide to Raising Remarkable Boys helps you go it alone-and raise a happy, healthy, well-adjusted young man!
	Trustful bonds: A key to ''becoming a mother'' and to reciprocal breastfeeding. Stories of mothers of very preterm infants at a neonatal unit [An article from: Social Science & Medicine] by R. Flacking (Author), U. Ewald (Author), K.H. Nyqvist (Author), B. Starrin (Author) This digital document is a journal article from Social Science & Medicine, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. Description: A preterm birth and subsequent hospitalization of an infant at a neonatal unit (NU) implies an extraordinary life situation for mothers, in which the maternal role and breastfeeding begin and evolve in a medical and unfamiliar setting. Descriptions of how women experience ''becoming a mother'' and breastfeeding in such a situation are sparse and this question was addressed in the present study. In this qualitative study, inspired by the grounded theory approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with 25 mothers...
	Depression Fallout: The Impact of Depression on Couples and What You Can Do to Preserve the Bond by Anne Sheffield (Author) Using the vivid, poignant and personal stories of the members of a website support group she founded (www.depressionfallout.com), Anne Sheffield, the author of two highly acclaimed books on depression, provides an honest record of what happens to a love relationship once depression enters the picture, and offers solid advice on what the non–depressed partner can do to improve his or her own life and the relationship. Of the millions of people who suffer from a depressive illness, few suffer in solitude. They draw the people they love – spouses, parents, children, lovers, friends – into their illness. In her first book, How You Can Survive When They're Depressed, Anne Sheffield coined the phrase 'depression fallout' to describe the emotional toll on the depressive's family and close...
	PeeWee Pilates: Pilates for the Postpartum Mother and Her Baby by Holly Jean Cosner (Author), Stacy Malin (Author) Though she yearns for her pre-pregnancy figure, a new mother has little time to devote to exercise; attending to the needs of a newborn is a full-time job. A revolutionary postnatal fitness program, Pee Wee Pilates gives new mothers what no other fitness program or book has to date: a quick and proven method they can do at home to whip their postpartum body gently back into shape and enrich their babies at the same time. Pilates targets the areas most affected by pregnancy (abdomen, hips, lower back, and buttocks), so new moms will get results fast without having to leave homes or carve out huge chunks of time. Simultaneously, because the baby is incorporated into the Pilates movements, women get to enjoy a loving and fun interaction with their babies. Unlike other mother/baby fitness...
	Made for Each Other: The Biology of the Human-Animal Bond (Merloyd Lawrence Books) by Meg Daley Olmert (Author) Nothing turns a baby’s head more quickly from nursing or playing than the sight of a dog or any animal. Made for Each Other lays out both sides of this deep mutual connection and the way it has evolved since prehistoric times. Drawing on the fascinating work of scientists in many fields, from neuroscience to zoology and anthropology, as well as her own investigations, Meg Daley Olmert shows the roots of this age-old bond and its great importance to our well being.