A new study shows that babies’ oxytocin systems – the hormone of empathy – could be influenced by the behavior of their mothers, and more generally of their parents.
This epigenetic research published in the journal Science Advances was conducted by researchers from the University of Virginia and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (USA).
The scientists followed a cohort of 101 infants and their mothers for between 5 and 18 months, during which time they took saliva samples twice from the mother and infant two years apart.
The objective of the experiment was to observe a session of free play interaction between mother and child, and then to assess the level of oxytocin, hormone associated with love and empathy, of the participants.
Low levels of oxytocin observed in “capricious” children
The researchers found that the more involved the mothers were in playing with their child, the greater the expression of the oxytocin receptor gene. “Children with presumably lower levels of oxytocin receptors at 18 months were also more temperamental and less well balanced,” notes Kathleen Krol, post-doctoral researcher at the University of Virginia, who led the study.
The results of this study show that we are not just linked by our genes, but that interactions also play a very strong role in the parent-child relationship.both with fathers and mothers.
“Advances in molecular biology, particularly epigenetics, have recently made it possible to study the interaction of nature and nurture, in this case infant care, with great precision. exactly what we did here,” the study authors point out.
.
