Why grandchildren ‘wake up’ grandparents’ brains

Health restrictions have led to limited social interactions and forced many grandparents to give up on visits from their grandchildren, at least for a while. To compensate, they were able to turn to the photos of the latter to find comfort. A new study, published on November 17 in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciencessuggests that this notably increases their emotional empathy and indicates a parental care system in the brain that highlights their interest in the development of grandchildren.

A special intergenerational bond

This is the first study to look at the effects on grandparents’ brains of time spent poring over grandchildren’s keepsake photos. To do this, the researchers scanned the brains of grandmothers as they viewed photos of their young grandchildren, providing a neural snapshot of this special intergenerational bond. “Here we highlight the brain functions of grandmothers that can play an important role in our social life and development.assures Minwoo Lee, co-author of the study. It’s an important aspect of the human experience that has largely been left outside the realm of neuroscience..”

Small adult children do not cause the same emotion

The results show that delving into souvenir photos activates grandparents’ empathy. “What really stands out in the data is activation in areas of the brain associated with emotional empathysays James Rilling, professor of anthropology at Emory University and lead author of the study. This suggests that grandmothers aim to feel what their grandchildren feel. If they smile, they will feel the child’s joy. And if he cries, they feel the child’s pain and distress.”

The study also showed that when grandmothers look at images of their adult child, they show stronger activation in an area of ​​the brain associated with cognitive empathy. This indicates that they may be trying to cognitively understand what their adult child is thinking or feeling and why, but not so much on the emotional side. “Young children probably developed traits to be able to manipulate not only the maternal brain, but also the large maternal brain.says James Rilling. An adult child does not have the same cuteness factor, so it may not elicit the same emotional response.”

Grandmothers, an interest in offspring

The researchers believe that these results provide a better understanding of why women on average live beyond their reproductive years. Their hypothesis is that this is explained by evolutionary advantages brought to their offspring and grandchildren. “We often assume that fathers are the most important caregivers next to mothers, but that’s not always true.adds James Rilling. In some cases, grandmothers are the main help.”

Evidence supporting this hypothesis includes a study of the traditional Hadza people of Tanzania, where foraging by grandmothers improves the nutritional status of their grandchildren. Another study of traditional communities showed that the presence of grandmothers decreases the intervals between the births of their daughters and increases the number of grandchildren.

A parental care system in the brain

For the current study, the researchers wanted to understand the brains of healthy grandmothers and how this may relate to the benefits they provide to their families. For this, they recruited 50 female participants whom they asked to complete questionnaires about their experiences as grandmothers, providing details such as time spent with their grandchildren, activities they do together and affection they feel for them. They also underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure their brain function as they looked at photos of their grandchild, an unknown child, the grandchild’s same-sex parent, and their parents. an unknown adult.

The results revealed that while looking at photos of their grandchildren, most participants showed more activity in brain areas involved in emotional empathy and movement, compared to when looking at others. pictures. Grandmothers who activated areas involved in cognitive empathy more strongly when viewing photos of their grandchild said in the questionnaire that they wanted more involvement in the care of the grandchild. “Our results add to the evidence that there appears to be an overall system of parental care in the brain, and that grandmothers’ responses to their grandchildren are reflected in it.”, suggests James Rilling.

However, the researchers note a limit to their study, which is that it only looked at grandmothers in good mental and physical health.