Researchers from the United States have shown that when viewed by photos of grandchildren in grandmothers, the brain areas associated with emotional empathy, and children related to cognitive empathy, are activated. This is according to experts, speaks of greater emotional attachment to the first. The revealing mechanism of the brain of grandmothers The article of scientists is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
For Homo Sapiens, a cooperative reproduction is characterized in which the mother receive assistance assistance. According to the so-called “grandmother’s hypothesis”, menopause in women arose that they could create evolutionary benefits for their children who could have more offspring, and grandchildren who could get more food – which is confirmed by the study of traditional societies. The data on modern society also indicate that the participation of grandmothers in education is associated with the improvement of academic academic progress, behavior and physical health of children.
In the experiment of researchers from the University of Emori, 50 grandmothers were attended by one grandson or one granddaughter aged three to 12 years. To begin with, they were asked to fill out questionnaires about their experience – how much time they spend with their grandchildren and what they do. After that, experts with the help of functional magnetic resonance tomography studied the activity of the brain of participants while they considered photos of their grandchildren and granddaughters, their mothers, as well as children and adults unknown to them.
It turned out that the greatest activity during the observation of grandchildren was observed in the areas of the brain associated with emotional empathia – the ability to experience the same feelings and emotions as the other person. At the same time, when the participants watched their daughters in the photograph, they have more activated the areas of the brain associated with Cognitive Empathy – the ability to understand the point of view of another person. This suggests that the researchers say that they seek to understand what their children think and feel, but the same emotional response, like grandchildren, they do not cause. Grandmothers with the greatest activation of these areas noted in the questionnaires that they would like more participation in the life of grandchildren and granddaughters.
Comparison with the results of previously conducted researchers of a similar study for fathers showed that grandmothers are on average, the brain regions associated with emotional empathy and motivation are stronger than the grandmothers. “Our results are another evidence of the existence of a common parent care system in the brain,” said the lead author of the work, Professor University of Emory James Rilling.