Baby's Smile A Natural High For Mom

Looking At Baby's Smile Triggers Reward Center In Mom's Brain

(WebMD)  Seeing her baby smile may provide a natural high for mom.

A new study shows seeing her baby's smile lights up the reward center in a mother's brain. Researchers say understanding that reaction may help explain that special mother-child bond and determine why it sometimes goes wrong.

"The relationship between mothers and infants is critical for child development," says researcher Lane Strathearn, MBBS, FRACP, assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, in a news release. "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."

Baby's Smile a Natural High

In the study, published in Pediatrics, researchers had 28 first-time mothers view images of their own child and other infants while hooked up to a functional magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) scanner.

The functional MRI provided information on activation of different regions of the brains as the women viewed the images of the babies smiling or portraying neutral or sad emotions.

Researchers found that when the mothers saw happy images of their own baby, activation increased in areas of the brain associated with reward and the neurotransmitter dopamine compared with seeing images of other babies.

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

Overall, the mothers' brains responded much more strongly to their own infants than to others, but researchers found the strength of that natural-high reaction depended on the baby's facial expression.

"The strongest activation was with smiling faces," says Strathearn. "We were expecting a different reaction with sad faces."

Instead, they found little difference in the reaction of the mothers' brains to their own baby's crying face compared to that of an unknown child.

"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," says Strathearn.

[atschroeder]

Are you kidding me? We really needed someone to research this? I want to publish a study that points out obvious things...where do I sign up?

[bobgee_1999]

atschroeder:

Go hammer a nail or something. Some of us are interested in how and why things work. If you aren''t, maybe stay out of the discussion.

[feelfrree4u]

.

[atschroeder]

bobgee_1999:

Since you have made assumptions about me: get out from behind your computer and experience life. If you need a research study to tell you that a smiling baby makes mothers happy you obviously haven''t been outside...EVER. Despite your comment I myself am interested in how things work...why else would I have even clicked on a scientific article. But anyone could have told you that a smiling baby "lights up the reward center" in the mothers brain. Don''t you think these "scientists" could have better spent their time researching childhood diabetes or maybe SIDS rather than wasting time and money on the obvious.

[kenhamlett]

I have an idea. How about naming the individuals that approved wasting money to study the obvious. This like so many other do nothing research programs are just another way to waste money in the name of science. The next thing you know they will be pushing pills to simulate the effect of a baby''s smile.
While I have a problem with the concurrent article on obese kids, this one overwhelms it in sheer stupidity. While typical doctors now are content to display greed and ignorance, it takes shrinks and neuro specialists to really rip off the public, the government and philanthropic research funds.

[foreducation]

While we do seem to know about how a mom''s brain might work, we know much much less vice versa. It will be truly interesting to see how a baby''s brain reacts to all our adult behavior/misbehavior. ... Please do not stuff children with drugs before we really know how their body works (referring to the obesity article).

[jankebenz]

At least we''re talking live babies here, In Canada they just gave an award of honour to an ex halocaust survivor who is responsible for killing millions of babies under the title of Doctor.

[smurfcrusher]

jankebenz, are you on drugs?

[jankebenz]

jankebenz, are you on drugs?

Posted by smurfcrusher at 11:12 PM : Jul 07, 2008
No but maybe I should,cause I''m sick to my stomach.
Check out henry morgentaler''s order of Canada for more info

[rwsmith29456]

What makes it research is that nobody has documented this from experimentation before, especially actually seeing the brain in action. It''s always been an assumption and nobody has bothered to check it out. I''ve seen much more inane research projects, like the guy that wanted to prove that the blocks Egyption pyramids are made of were poured in place like cement.

[oneworldusa]

Uh....yeah!!! No greater joy to a mom than her baby''s big smile. I know, I have a 7-month old. He smiles so much, his nickname is ''Smiley.''

[pollroller1]

Do other animal brains work the same way that the human animal brain works? I wonder, if this study were done on let''s say monkeys if they would get the same results.

[cfin5]

Don''t forget us Dads. The more little smiling stinkerbutts running around getting in trouble the better. Lying about the cleanliness of their diapers, climbing trees, love-choking the cats, bringing Mom "her" flowers, running to fast down the hill, chasing snake feeders, sailing things that float in the mud puddles while helping to stir the same, mocking the rooster, questioning you with borderline interrogation persistence,......maybe drop the "borderline" part........These are little "BIG" things my heart needs to go and work and worry like hell, stand up for my rights to protect theirs so they might protect mine when my wife and I are old, to lean on an American good man and wife that we helped to fashion,.......our children :)

[sassalin]

Did we need a study for this? When my 18 month old smiles it makes my day!!!!

[rational_1]

No but maybe I should,cause I''''m sick to my stomach.
Check out henry morgentaler''''s order of Canada for more info
Posted by jankebenz at 12:46 AM : Jul 08, 2008

I heard about that (ex-Canadian so I know who Morgentaler is). The good news is he''s 85, looks to be in poor health, and may drop dead before getting the Order of Canada.

[rational_1]

Do other animal brains work the same way that the human animal brain works? I wonder, if this study were done on let''''s say monkeys if they would get the same results.
Posted by pollroller1 at 06:27 AM : Jul 08, 2008

Interesting question and the answer is probably yes, although smell may play a bigger role in recognition in animals. The reward system mentioned in the article is evolutionarily fairly old (found in rats for example) and has been previously implicated in addiction to drugs, gambling, etc.

[lloydbest1]

It''s not just moms. Or even young dads. It''s also old timers like yers truly. Even now, long past the time when I could make or raise a baby, let alone want to, I still get a rush out of seeing an infant smile.