The brain of mothers works the same way across the world. The most common response to children crying is to lift them up, hold them, and whisper words in a sweet and reassuring voice. And this occurs in countries with very different cultural models.
An international network of researchers has identified the neurobiological reasons for this behavior, and the results of their study, on the neurobiological responses of mothers to infant cry, have recently been published in PNAS – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The work included the analysis of maternal behavior in response to infant cry in 684 mothers from eleven countries, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze the brains of another group of women from three different countries (Italy, United States, China).
The researchers found that the infant cries activated parts of the brain associated with movement and speech. Therefore there is a reason why mothers from all over the world do the same things to respond to their baby’s needs.
Paola Venuti, clinical psychologist and director of the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science of the University of Trento, is among the authors of the study.
More details in the press release (in italian).