Why Baby's Hungry Cry Tugs at Women (But Not Men)

News
By published
crying-baby-101028-02
(Image credit: Max Kim | Dreamstime.com)

The idea that women are hard-wired to respond to babies is supported in a small new brain scan study from Italy.

Women in the study who listened to the sounds of a baby crying in hunger showed a change in activity in certain brain regions, but men showed no change.

In women's brains, there was a decrease in activity in two areas known to be active during mind wandering — the dorsal medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate areas. By contrast, these regions in men's brains remained active when they heard the baby's cries, according the study.

The study shows that "women interrupt mind wandering when exposed to the sounds of infant hunger cries, whereas men carry on without interruption," the researchers wrote.

The brain patterns were not different between parents and nonparents in the study, the researchers said. This suggests that women may be predisposed to care for infants other than their own, the researchers said, though more study is needed to see whether this idea is held up.

Previous studies have shown that women are more likely than men to say that hearing an infant cry evokes feelings of sympathy and caregiving, while men are more likely to say that crying evokes irritation and anger.

Other work has shown that mothers' suffering from postpartum depression have muted brain activity patterns when they hear their baby cry, compared with nondepressed women.

The study was published in the February issue of the journal Neuroreport.

Pass it on: Hungry baby's cry affects the mother's brain, and evokes sympathy and caring.

Follow Karen Rowan @karenjrowan. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on MyHealthNewsDaily.

TOPICS
Karen Rowan
Karen Rowan
Health Editor
Karen came to LiveScience in 2010, after writing for Discover and Popular Mechanics magazines, and working as a correspondent for the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. She holds an M.S. degree in science and medical journalism from Boston University, as well as an M.S. in cellular biology from Northeastern Illinois University. Prior to becoming a journalist, Karen taught science at Adlai E. Stevenson High School, in Lincolnshire, Ill. for eight years.