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Fascinating food for thought: Slate.com’s “Double X” blog recently reported on a study published in the Brain Research Bulletin which found that rats’ brains can develop maternal traits just by having random foster pups (apparently that’s what they call baby rats) thrown into the mix.
Let me be more clear: Apparently the rats in the experiment were 14 virgin rats who had never been exposed to babies or mothers. Here’s what the researchers found:
It took about a week on average for seven of the rats to exhibit rodent caretaking behavior, such as crouching over the pups, grouping them, or returning them to the nest. Brain analyses showed that these maternal rats developed new neurons, which migrate to the olfactory region and are thought to be involved in the odor recognition of offspring.
But of course these are rats, right? Could the same phenomenon also occur in humans? According to the Slate article, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy — professor emeritus of anthropology at UC-Davis — says the “readiness to bond with nonbiological offspring” is present in many primates. This “babysitting” is part of how mommy neurons develop, and also explains “why human adoption works so well.”
Does this mean if you don’t want kids you definitely shouldn’t interact with any? Never fear, Slate says: “Tending to other people’s babies probably won’t make you want children if you otherwise don’t. But it might make you want to hold them and cuddle them more.”
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aaaaaaaaaaaah awesomeness. For that reason my parents discourage me from visiting friends who just had babies :-D
Babies creep me out and little kids annoy me. I spend a lot of time around my young nieces and nephews and I don’t get any more comfortable with them. I’d rather hang with the surly teenaged nieces and nephews than the little ones. Then again, I teach college so I’m used to surly teenagers.
But little kids. . .hell no!
Hmm….no need for that here. I’m very excited to have my own little bundles of joy someday.
My friend who ‘hates babies’ goes silly over my daughter. She just came back from a trip overseas and said ‘Oh, I missed seeing her grow so much!’ Wonder how long it will take for her to want one of her own?
On the other hand, being around children reinforces my determination to never have my own. I like them; I’m good with them; I love handing them back and going home.
I’ve heard before of sterile couples adopting and then managing to have biological children. Could be something along the same lines. Or just a basic parental instinct that will develop into reasonable caretaking with time.
Ugh. This study is irrelevant. THESE ARE RATS – THEY ARE NO WHERE NEAR THE SAME AS HUMANS. Try the experiment on some human beings and then we’ll talk.