The overall development of a child depends much upon the kind of love and nurturing bond the mother provides him/her. Researchers have found that early nurturing, affection and support of a mother can have a deep impact on the positive brain development of a child. Children nurtured by mothers, appear to have a bigger hippo-campus, according to researchers at the Washington University of St Louis. Hippocampus is a region in the brain responsible for the critical changes in a child’s memory and learning ability. The research was conducted based on the nurturing skills of parents, of which about 95 percent were biological.
The research
Prior to their latest study, the researchers had already conducted a study about 10 years ago on preschool children aged between 3 to 6 years. Some of these children were mentally sound without any health problems, some were undergoing mental depression and some had psychiatric disorder.
The researchers videotaped the children interacting with their parents in their everyday activities, particularly the mother, to evaluate how much nurturing and care was given to a child during stressful times by the parent.
The researchers watched the children’s’ reaction to their mothers inability to help them perform a certain task. For instance, when a mother was busy with work the child insisted to the mother to help her open up a gift. The mother being too busy could not attend to the child’s need, leaving the child to figure out how to open the gift by herself.
The child appeared stressed because of the lack of attention, as well as the inability to perform a certain difficult task. This study was basically very objective as it dealt with approximate stresses of daily parenting, rather than having any direct knowledge of the child’s health and the parent’s temperament.
The researchers for their current study collected 92 of the same children, who had previously participated in the study, irrespective of their health status. The brain imaging conducted on these children revealed smaller hippocampus in those children whose parents were not nurturing towards them.
On the other hand, those children who were given good nurturing by the parents were mentally sound and had larger hippocampus. Even those who had mild depression had shown marked improvement due to better nurturing from the parents during the intervening years.
What the research says?
The findings of the study was led by Dr. Luby, Child psychiatrist and Director of the University’s Early Emotional Development Program, and is the first such finding conducted on human. Studies have been conducted before on animals which clearly indicates better growth in animals whose mothers nurtured well.
Researchers say that the brain sends an autonomic message to the nervous system, when the body is stressed. The involuntary nervous systems are activated to release stress hormones which helps in coping with stress.
This is done through the process of helping the body to adapt by increased heart rate in the individual. The direct link of this response lies in the main brain structure which is the hippocampus. This suggests that larger volumes of hippocampus leads to improved performance in every aspect, as well as being a good key in memory and learning.
The researchers on the basis of their study concludes that during preschool days, if effective and supportive care is given to children, they are more likely in their school days to develop larger hippocampus. Researchers believe that parents need to focus more towards giving the right nurturing and care towards their wards.
