Parental instincts are in every person

The urge to embrace and caress babies whenever they see them is an innate reaction of humans. The cause is partly due to the speciality of the baby's face.

New research has helped explain why adults love children, why most parents are immediately attracted to their children, and why many men are attracted to women who have faces. baby It all originates from a sample / parent reaction in the anterior cortex, just above the eye socket.

" Brain activity in the center of the front can help us pay more attention, protect and nurture the child, " study author Morten Kringelbach said.

To understand this, he and his colleagues at the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford University, England, used brain imaging technology to measure brain activity in volunteers. These people are required to press the button each time a cross on the screen changes color. Meanwhile, images of newborn babies and adults flashed before their eyes.

The results show that there is no reaction every time an adult's face appears, but the baby's image bounces off brain activity within a second - a sign that the babies are very thick special. This reaction is similar in both men, women or children without children, proving to be a human instinct, Kringelbach said.

However, people with depression may be affected by the area of ​​the brain involved in the love of children, because the depressive brain region is nearby. In particular, mothers often suffer from depression after birth."Our research can help better understand people with postpartum depression and find better treatment for them," Kringelbach said.