Grandmas may be more connected to grandkids than own children
By Heidi Krause|
It is said a grandmother's love knows no bounds and now science proves it.
A world-first study has revealed that grannnies may be more emotionally connected to their grandkids than their own children.
For the first time, scientists have scanned grandmothers' brains while they're viewing photos of their young grandchildren กช providing a neural snapshot of this special, inter-generational bond.
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The study, conducted by researchers at Emory University, gathered 50 women with at least one biological grandchild aged between 3 and 12.
The grandmas were then asked to fill out a questionnaire as well as undergo functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure their brain activity as they viewed pictures of their grandchild, an unknown child, the same-sex parent of the grandchild, and an unknown adult.
"What really jumps out in the data is the activation in areas of the brain associated with emotional empathy," explained James Rilling, Emory professor of anthropology and lead author of the study. "That suggests that grandmothers are geared toward feeling what their grandchildren are feeling when they interact with them.
"If their grandchild is smiling, they're feeling the child's joy. And if their grandchild is crying, they're feeling the child's pain and distress."
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In contrast, the study found that when grandmothers view images of their adult child, they show stronger activation in an area of the brain associated with cognitive empathy.
That indicates they may be trying to cognitively understand what their adult child is thinking or feeling and why, but not as much from the emotional side.
"Our results add to the evidence that there does seem to be a global parenting caregiving system in the brain, and that grandmothers' responses to their grandchildren maps onto it," Professor Rilling said.
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The study opens the door to many more questions to be explored, such as looking at the brain function of grandfathers.
According to Professor Rilling, a particularly pleasurable part of the project was personally interviewing all the participants himself. "It was fun," he admitted. "I wanted to get a sense of the rewards and challenges of being a grandmother."
The grandmas reported that one of the main challenges of being a grandparent was "trying not to interfere when they disagreed with the parents" over how their grandchildren should be raised or disciplined - and what values should be instilled in them.
"Many of them also said how nice it is to not be under as much time and financial pressure as they were when raising their children," Rilling says. "They get to enjoy the experience of being a grandmother much more than they did being parents."
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