The protective instinct is activated in the adult brain when seeing a baby

In general, when we see a baby, we are inspired by tenderness and we feel like punching it, clothing it, protect it. This was clearer (and demonstrated) in the case of parents with their baby, but according to a recent study, also when it is not about our son. Seeing a baby's face causes a brain response that would indicate a natural inclination to care for him.

The response occurs in areas of the brains of adults that have to do with emotion, reward and movement planning, and researchers observed this pattern in adults who did not know the baby or had children of their own.

The researchers used brain magnetic resonance imaging to record the activity of men and women while watching faces of babies and adults, faces of puppies and kittens, and faces of adult dogs and cats.

The faces of the babies caused more activity in certain brain regions than the other images.

Those areas included the premotor cortex and the supplementary motor area, which have to do with speech and movement planning; the fusiform gyrus, involved in facial recognition; and the insular and cingulate barks, which participate in emotional activation, empathy, bonding and reward.

The study, which appears in the journal "NeuroImage", has been prepared by specialists from the United States, Germany, Italy and Japan, and directed by the Child and Family Research Section of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Eunice Kennedy Shriver in Bethesda, Maryland (United States).

But, there are exceptions to this fact of activating the protective instinct of a baby when we see it? The researchers point out that the urge to care for babies may not be found in all adults, which could illuminate why child abuse or abuse occurs.

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